Notes . 
139 
The gemmae easily became deatched from the parent plant by the complete 
breaking down of the stalk-cell, and then appeared to enter upon a period of rest. 
They germinated, after a shorter or longer interval, by the outgrowth of a protonerna- 
filament from one of the resting cells. These young filaments had a thin colourless 
wall, and contained a relatively small number of pale green chloroplasts that were 
somewhat elongated in the direction of the long axis of the cell. 
In the germination of the smaller gemmae a single protonema-filament only was 
produced (Fig. 5), but in the larger ones sometimes more than one of the resting cells 
resumed activity, as is shown in Fig. 4, where two young outgrowths are depicted. 
These gemmae of Tor tula viutica differ from those figured by Braithwaite 1 for 
T. papillosa chiefly in their position and mode of attachment. In T. papillosa , 
gemmae occur only on the upper surface of the thickened nerve in the apical half 
of the young leaves, and are attached by means of a thin stalk which still adheres to 
the gemma when it becomes separated from the leaf. In T. mutica , on the other 
hand, the gemmae were never observed on the midrib, but grew indiscriminately over 
the whole of the surface of the leaf-blade, and were found on both old and young 
leaves, and also on the protonema. Their stalk-cell was broad and comparatively 
shallow, and no part of it could ever be detected on those gemmae that had become 
detached from the moss-plant. 
I wish to thank Professor G. S. West for providing for this examination the 
material which had been collected by Mr. E. Cleminshaw. 
Botanical Department, 
University of Birmingham 
B. MURIEL BRISTOL. 
1 Loc. cit., Tab. XXXII, E. I and II. 
