On Apospory in Anthoceros laevis. 
BY 
WILLIAM H. LANG, M.B., D.Sc., 
Lecturer in Botany at Queen Margaret College , Glasgow University . 
With Plate XXVII. 
HE fact that under certain conditions the vegetative cells 
JL of the asexual generation could produce the sexual 
generation, and that the origin of the latter was not necessarily 
connected with the spore, was discovered in the Mosses. 
Pringsheim 1 first described it for three species (. Hypnum 
cupressiforme , H. serpens, and Bryum caespitosum ), while the 
independent work of Stahl 2 was done on Ceratodon purpureus . 
From Pringsheim’s account and figures it appears that the 
seta of the ripe capsule was cut into short pieces, which were 
laid on damp sand ; in Stahl’s experiments the sporogonia 
were either simply pulled away from the moss-plant or cut 
off above their point of attachment to the latter. In both 
series of experiments, whether the sporogonia were more or 
less cut up or were uninjured, protonemal filaments ultimately 
arose from certain of their cells. Brizi 3 has since shown that 
in Funaria hygrometrica this may take place from capsules 
still attached to the moss-plant. Without referring in detail 
1 Monatsb. d. k. Akad. Wiss., Berlin, 1876. Jahrb. wiss. Bot, Bd. xi, 1877. 
2 Bot. Zeit., 1876, p. 689. 
3 Ann. d. R. Inst. Bot. Rom., vol. v., p. 54, 1893. 
[Annals of Botany, Vol. XV. No. LIX. September, 1901.] 
