THE AUSTRALIAN NATURALIST. 87 
The Mosses were cellular Cryptogams, and as such possessed 
remarkable tenacity of life, and exhibited many beautiful 
variations of structure. 
The Moss plant ranged from minute forms barely visible 
to the naked eye up to very large forms like Dawsonia superba 
or Spirideus muelleri, the latter of which had been collected by 
Mr. Whitelegge on the top of Mt. Gower, in Lord Howe 
Island, two feet or more in height. A silky pendulous moss 
(Barbella trichophoroides) he himself had seen in the Rich- 
mond River scrubs growing fully three feet high. 
The stem varied greatly, not only in length, but in charac- 
ter. It might be circular, bearing leaves all round without 
any noticeable order, or triangular, bearing leaves in three 
rows, or might take other shapes: the leaves being frequently 
set in straight or spiral rows. The inflorescence possessed the 
characters exhibited in Phanerogams: it might be dioicous 
or monoicous. But ‘“‘monoicous’’ was not used in modern de- 
scriptions of mosses, because the monoicous inflorescence ap- 
peared in different forms. It was therefore described as 
“‘synoicous’’ (the male and female flowers in the same bud), 
‘“‘paroicous’’ (the male flowers alongside the female bud), 
“autoicous’’ (the two kinds of flowers being on different parts 
of the stem), and ‘‘heteroicous’’ (more than one of the fore- 
going forms being present). Where the inflorescence was both 
dioicous and monoicous, it was called ‘‘polyoicous.’’ 
The leaves were as varied in form and structure as those of 
the Phanerogams ; they were entire or serrate, bordered or un- 
bordered, and were marked by many other beautiful charac- 
ters: the cell formation was particularly interesting and 
varied. ; 
The second, or spore-bearing, form-was intensely interest- 
ing. It consisted of a stem (seta), short or long, variously 
coloured, etc., tipped by a capsule, which held the spores. Mr, 
Watts described the growth of this ‘‘sporogone’’ (or second 
generation), and showed how the spores were arranged and 
how they were set free. The capsule generally was shut hy 
a lid (operculum) and crowned with a hood (calyptra). When 
the operculum was removed, in many species a_ beautiful 
circle (single or double) of ‘‘teeth’’ was disclosed, called 
the peristome, through and by which the ripened spores were 
emitted. Finally Mr, Watts spoke of the great variety of 
the spores in colour and consistency. 
Throughout, the lecturer illustrated his points by reference 
to specimens and to a fine diagram borrowed from the Sydney 
Herbarium. 
Mr. Watts also referred to the question of Moss distribu- 
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