Musci, Bryophyta.
Mosses are a beautiful class of non-vascular cryptogams. Linnæus called them servi, servants or workmen, as they seem to labour to produce vegetation in places where soil is not already formed. The Bryophyta form three natural divisions: the Bryinæ, or true mosses; the Sphagnaceæ, or peat-mosses; and the Hepaticæ, or liverworts. The two first are commonly united. In these the sexual organs consist of antheridia and archegonia, but they are of simpler structure than will be found in ferns; and the first generation from the spore is asexual.
Fig. 301.—Screw-moss.
The common or wall screw-moss ([Fig. 301]) grows almost everywhere, and if examined closely, is seen to have springing from its base numerous very slender stems, each terminating in a dark brown case, which encloses antheroids. If a patch of the moss is gathered when in this state, and the green part of the base is put into water, the threads of the fringe will uncoil and disentangle themselves in a most curious and beautiful manner; from this circumstance the plant takes its popular name of screw-moss. The leaf usually consists of either a single or a double layer of cells, having flattened sides, by which they adhere one to another. The leaf-cells ([Fig. 302]) of the Sphagnum or bog-moss exhibit a curious departure from the ordinary type; they are large, polygonal, and elongated, and contain spiral fibres loosely coiled in their interior. The young leaf does not differ from the older; both are evolved by a gradual process of differentiation.
Fig. 302.—Section of leaf of Sphagnum moss, showing large cells of spiral fibres and connecting apertures.
Mosses, like liverworts, possess both antheridia and pistillida, which are engaged in the process of fructification. The fertilized cell becomes gradually developed into a conical body elevated upon a footstalk, the walls of the flask-shaped body carrying the higher part upwards as a calyptra or hood upon its summit, while the lower part remains to form a kind of collar round the base. These spore-capsules are closed on their summit by opercula or lids, and their mouths when laid open are surrounded by a beautiful toothed fringe, termed the peristome. This fringe is shown in [Fig. 303], in the centre of a capsule of Funaria, with its peristome in situ. The fringes of teeth are variously constructed, and are of great service in discriminating the genera. In Neckera antipyretica the peristome is double, the inner being composed of teeth united by cross bars, forming a very pretty trellis. The seed spores are contained in the upper part of the capsule, where they are clustered round the central pillar, termed the columella; and at the time of maturity, the interior of the capsule is almost entirely occupied by spores.
Fig. 303.—Mouth of Capsule of Funaria, showing Peristome.
Fig. 304.—Hair-moss in Fruit.
The undulating hair-moss, Polytrichum undulatum ([Fig. 304]), is found on moist, shady banks of pools and rivulets. The seed-vessel has a curious shaggy cap; but in its construction it is very similar to that of the screw-moss, except that the fringe around its opening is not twisted. The reproductive organs of mosses are of two kinds; the capsule containing minute spores, archegonia, and the antheridia, or male efflorescence. The capsule, theca, or sporangium, is lateral or terminal, sessile, or on a fruit stalk (seta) of various shapes, indehiscent, or bursting by four valves at the sides, or more commonly by a deciduous cup, operculum. When this falls the mouth of the capsule becomes exposed. The rim is crowned with tooth-like or cilia-like appendages in sets of four or multiples of that number—peristome. These are often brightly coloured and hydroscopic. By simply breathing upon them they suddenly fly open, and are endowed with motion, that is, if they contain spores. The spores on germination produce a green confervoid-like mass of threads, from which the young plant arises.
The Sphagnaceæ, or “bog mosses,” have been separated from true mosses from the marked differences they present. The stem is more widely differentiated, and throughout its structure a rapid passage of fluid takes place. It has the power of absorbing moisture from the atmosphere, so that if a plant be placed dry in a glass of water with its rosette of leaves hanging over the edge, it acts like a syphon, and the water will drop from it until the glass is emptied. As may be supposed, the leaf is composed of large open cells, and it absorbs more water than the root. The antherids or male organs of Sphagnaceæ resemble those of liverworts, rather than those of mosses, both in form and arrangement; they are grouped in “catkins” at the tips of the lateral branches, each of the imbricated perigonal leaves enclosing a single globose antherid on a slender foot-stalk, and surrounded by long branched paraphyses of cobweb-like tenuity. The female organs, or archegones, do not differ materially in structure from those of mosses; they are grouped together in a sheath of deep green leaves at the end of the shorter lateral branchlets at the side of the rosette or terminal crown of leaves. The sporange is very uniform in all the species, and the spores are in groups of fours, as in mosses, around a hemispherical columella. These plants grow so rapidly that they soon cover a pool with thin matted bundles of branches, and as they decay they fall to the bottom, and become the foundation of the future bog or peat moss.
Felices.—Of all the spore-bearing families the ferns are the more universally known. They constitute an exceedingly numerous genera and species, and vary from low herbaceous plants of an inch in height to that of tree ferns, which attain a height of fifty or more feet, terminating in a graceful coronet of fronds or leaves. Of whatever size a fern may be, its spores are, for the most part, microscopic, produced within the sporangium by cell division, and are therefore free and variously shaped.
The true mode of development of ferns from their spores was that furnished by Nägeli, who announced the existence of antheridia. On the spore starting into life it sends out from the cell-wall of its outer coat a white tubular projection, or root fibre ([Fig. 305], A, B, and C), which passes through the cell-wall of its outer coat. This attracts sufficient moisture to burst open the outer, and then it begins to increase by the subdivision of its cells, until the primary green prothallus D is formed. This falls to the ground, and, being furnished on its under side with thread-like fibres, fixes itself to the earth, and thus is developed the rhizome, or root of the future plant. In each of the antheridia, which are numerous, a cell is formed, chiefly filled with albuminous matter and free spores, each having attached a flat ribbon-like filament, or stermatoid, curled in a spiral manner. These are ultimately set free by the rupture of the cell-wall, and commence revolving rapidly by the agency of the whip-like appendage at the larger end.
Fig. 305.—Development of the Globular Antheridium and Spermatoids of Pteris serrulata.
A. Spores; B, C. Early stages of development; D. Prothallus with radial fibres; a, a and a, b are stermatoids; and h, h. Enclosed antheridia.
The sporangia, or spore-cases, are, for the most part, globular in form, and are nearly or quite surrounded by a strong elastic ring, which in some cases is continued to form a stalk. When the spores are ripe, this ring, by its elastic force, tears open the sporangia and gives exit to a quantity of microscopic filaments, curled in corkscrew-like fashion (Figs. 305 and 307). The ring assumes various forms; in one group it passes vertically up the back of the sporangium, and is continued to a point termed the stomata, where the horizontal bursting takes place. This form is seen in [Fig. 306], a, b. In other groups it is vertical, as in c, c; in others transverse, as in d; or apical, as at e; and in a few instances it is obsolete, as in f. These are the true ferns, and their systematic arrangement is chiefly founded on the peculiarity of the sori and sporangia, characters which become quite intelligible by the aid of the microscope.
Fig. 306.—Sporangia of Polypodiaceous Ferns.
a, b. Polypodiaceæ; c. Cyantheineæ; d. Gleichenineæ; e. Schizeineæ; f. Osmundineæ.
Fig. 307.—Spores of Deparia prolifera.
The beautiful ringed sporangium of the fern ([Fig. 307]) when ruptured gives exit to the dust-like spores; these, examined under a moderate power, are seen to be sub-globose and pyramidal, the outer coat or exospore being a coloured hyaline cell with nuclei similar to the spores of mosses, but in which chlorophyll soon begins to form, and from this little green embryonic growth the organs of reproduction are formed.
In all ferns the pistillidia or archegonia are analogous to the ovules or nascent seeds of flowering plants, and contain, like them, a germinal vesicle, which becomes fertilized through the agency of the spiral filaments, and then gradually develops into an embryo plant possessing a terminal bud. This bud begins at once to unfold and push out leaves with a circinate vernation, of a very simple form at first, and growing up beneath the prothallium, coming out at the notch; single fibrous roots are at the same time sent down into the earth, the delicate expanded prothallium withers away, and the foundation of the perfect fern plant is laid. When a fern acquires a considerable stem, as in a tree fern, it consists of cellular tissue and an external cortical portion forming fibro-vascular bundles, scalariform ducts, and woody fibre. [Fig. 308], b, shows an oblique section of the footstalk of a fern leaf with its bundle of scalariform ducts.
These observations on ferns have acquired increased interest from subsequent investigations made on the allied Cryptogams, and on the processes occurring in the impregnation of the Conifers. Not only have later researches furnished a satisfactory interpretation of the archegonia and antheridia of the mosses and liverworts, but they have made known and co-ordinated the existence of analogous phenomena in the Equisetaceæ, Lycopodiaceæ, and Rhizocarpeæ, and prove, moreover, that the bodies described by Dr. Brown in the Conifers under the name of “corpuscles” are analogous to the archegonia of the Cryptogams; so that a link is hereby formed between these groups and the higher flowering plants.
Fig. 308.—a. Vertical section of Fern-root, showing spiral tissue and cells filled with granular bodies; b. Section of Footstalk.
Equisetaceæ.—The development of Horse-tails ([Fig. 309]), the name by which they are commonly known, corresponds in some respects with that of ferns. They comprise a little group, and the whole of their structure is composed in an extraordinary degree by silex, so that even when the organic portion has been destroyed by prolonged maceration in strong acid, a consistent skeleton still remains. It is this flinty material that constitutes their chief interest for microscopists. A portion of their silicious particles is distributed in two lines, arranged parallel to the axis of the plant, others are grouped into oval forms, and connected by a chain as in a necklace. The form and arrangement of the crystals are better seen under polarised light. [Plate VIII]., No. 170, a portion of the epidermis, forms an extremely beautiful object. Sir David Brewster pointed out that each silicious particle has a regular axis of double refraction. What is usually said to be the fructification of the Equisetaceæ forms a cone or spike-like extremity to the top of the stem ([Fig. 309]), the whole resembling a series of spike-like branches (the real stem being a horizontal rhizome), and a cluster of shield-like discs, each of which carries a circle of sporanges that open by longitudinal slits to set free the spores which are attached to it in two pairs of elastic filaments (shown in [Fig. 291], F, G), elaters; these are at first coiled up around the spore in the manner represented at G, but on their liberation they extend themselves as shown at F. The slightest moisture will close them up again, and their purpose having been served in the distribution of the spores, they are no longer required. If a number of spores be spread out on a glass-slip under the microscope and, while watching, a bystander breathes upon them, they immediately respond, are set in motion, presenting a curious appearance, but as soon as the hydroscopic effect has passed off they return to their previous condition. These spores can be mounted in a cell with a movable cover, and made to exhibit the same effect over and over again.
Fig. 309.—Equisetum giganticum.
a. Fragment of stem showing mode of branching out; b. Cone or spike of fructification; c. Scale detached from cone; d. Spore with elastic filaments; e. Vertical section of stem; f. Transverse section showing hexagonal cells.
The vascular tissue of the Equisetaceæ ([Fig. 309], e, f) shows them to be of a higher grade than the ferns. More recently discovered Horse-tails, of Brazil, grow to a gigantic size, but even these are comparatively small when compared with the Calamites, and other fossil Equisetaceæ of the coal measures and new red sandstone. They all require a calcareous flinty soil for growth. A spring water-course making its way to the sea, as in the Chines of the Isle of Wight, is very favourable, the author having gathered them more than once in Bramble Chine.
Nearly allied to ferns is a little group of small aquatic plants, the Rhizocarpeæ (pepperworts), which either float on the water or creep along shallow bottoms. These are chiefly curious from having two kinds of spores produced from separate sporanges; smaller and larger “microspores” undergoing progressive sub-division without the formation of a distinct prothallium; each cell giving origin to an antherozoid, a generative process said to belong exclusively to flowering plants, corresponding indeed to the pollen grains of higher plants.