A PRELIMINARY STUDY ON SPORE GERMINATION AND PROTONEMA DEVELOPMENT OF SOME CHINESE MOSSES

The spores of nine species of mosses were cultured on the tile surface in Hoagland's solution at 20—25℃. in the culture wares. The materials studied here were gotten from various habitats of different provinces. Physcomitrium eurystomum Sendhl., Funaria hygrometrica Hedw. from Liaoning, Funaria hygromstrica Hedw. and Philonotis seriata Mitt. from Hubei, Ceratodon purpureus (Hedw.) Brid. and Polytrichum juni perinum Hedw. from Heilongjiang, Pohlia elongata Hedw. and Platygyrium repens (Brid.) B.S.G. from Xinjiang Autonomous Region and Brachythecium reflexum (Stark,) B.S.G. from Jilin Provinces respectively. The sporelings of all these nine species are well developed and the normal filamentous protonemata are formed.Our experiments show that the filamentous protonemata consist of three types, namely, the chloronemata, caulonemata and rhizoids. The chloronemata are green filaments and full of chloroplasts in the cells. Its cross walls cross at right angles to the long axis of the protonemal threads. The brown caulonemata are developed from the chloronemata which have the cross walls oblique to the long axis of the filaments, and it sometimes contain a few number of spindlelike or needle-shaped chloroplasts. The buds of the leafy gametophytes are developed from the caulonemata. The rhizoids are very small in comparison with the chloronema and caulonemata, and entirely lacking of chloroplasts. The cross walls of the rhizoids are oblique to the long axis of the filaments. The terminal rhizoids and the primary rhizoids are both present.