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Antheridia

Antheridia, or the male organs of the Bryophytes, are spherical, oval, or club-shaped bodies, with long or short stalks. They consist of an outer wall of a uniform layer of cells, and an interior tissue formed of numerous small cells, in each one of which a sperm-cell has its origin. (See diagram on page 40).

The sperm-cell is a spirally coiled filament, thickened at the rear and pointed at the forward end with two long fine cilia projecting from the point.

When mature, the antheridia walls rupture, and the sperm-cells, in virtue of their coils, spring from the antheridia and by means of their cilia swim in water to the archegonia.