42 



was so obliging as to send me specimens in that state from the 

 neighbourhood of that place^ which I have already mentioned 

 in the second edition of the Muscologia Britannica, These I 

 think prove beyond a doubt that the plant is rightly placed in 

 the genus Riccia ; at the same time I must acknowledge that 

 the fructification^ in the only specimen I have yet received^ is 



F 



too far advanced to allow me to distinguish the capsule itself. 

 But I know that in our common JR. crystallma this part is 

 thin and evanescent^ and masses of seeds^ from two or three 

 or more capsules at length become confluent in the substance 

 of the frond^ and escape by the decay of the epidermis above 

 them^ leaving cavities or hollows in the frond. It is the case 



r 



here also^ and the seeds are of precisely the same nature In 

 both. 



Tig. 1. Plant of Riccia natans {nat. size). Fig. 2. Fructified plant. 



Fig. S. Portion of the same, to show the Inside of a capsule. 

 Fig. 4. Another portion, showing the seeds of several capsules 

 conglomerated. Fig. 5. Seeds. Fig. 6. Portion of the epider- 

 mis of the plant: — magnified. 



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