
NOTES ON MOSSES. 241 
NOTES ON MOSSES. 
\W* have all noticed the rich green velvet on damp walls and 
'Y other moist situations, due to the confervoid shoots of the 
first growth of Mosses after germination of the spores. All Mosses 
have this Protothallus or Protonema, from which the perfect plants 
spring, as in other cryptogams, and which disappear after full de- 
velopment of the fruit. 
In this young condition the refractive cells of the Cavern Moss, 
Schistostega pennata, i\lumes the dark recesses of sandstone caves, 
in which it loves to grow, with a brilliant golden-green light. 
Frodsham is a well known locality for this Moss, and it is not in- 
frequent in Lancashire, Staffordshire, Derbyshire, and Nottingham- 
shire. 
The duration of these confervoid filaments varies much in 
different Mosses ; the leaves being produced in about three weeks 
in Funaria, Gymnostomum and some Brya; while in some Poly- 
trichums they do not appear for two or four months. 
The confervoid filaments are almost always present in many of 
the Ephemerums and Phascums, Earth-Mosses ; the most minute 
of the British Mosses. 

Fig. 15. 
These genera belong to the terminal fruited division, whose 
capsules are without a deciduous lid and burst irregularly, and are 
annual, almost stemless and slightly branched plants, growing on 
newly exposed soil, and having lanceolate leaves in eight rows, 
neryed entire or serrated, with large cellules; Monoicous. Zphem- 

