50 Mn. WoopwaAnp's Effay towards an 
17. A fufpicion has been before hinted, that Mr. Bryant has been 
led into thefe miftakes by finding a ftellated Lycoperdon with a 
feffile head, which he with reafon thought muft be a different fpe- 
cles from thofe which had pedunculated heads; notwithftanding 
Linnzus has quoted as fynonyms to his ftellatum, authors who 
have defcribed plants both feffile and pedunculated, without even 
allowing this peculiar circumítance to form a variety. This ap- 
peared the more likely, as it can hardly be fuppofed, that fo patient 
and accurate an obferver could have defcribed as having feflile 
heads, plants which are never found without the peduncle; de- 
ceived by the thicknefs of the interior (apparently exterior) fpongy 
coat of the rays, which it has been before obferved completely 
hides the footftalk of the ftellatum of Linn. and Hudfon, when 
frefhly opened, and even for fome days, if the plant be foon after 
expanding removed into the houfe*. It is therefore not unreafon- 
able to conclude, that the plant called Lyc. ftellatum by Mr. 
Bryant is actually the fpecies mentioned f. 8, and which will 
prefently be more fully defcribed ; as this is the only ftellated Lyco- 
perdon with a feflile head which has been met with by other bo- 
tanifts in this country, and as the defcription and figures of Mr. 
Bryant’s ftellatum perfe&ly accord with this plant. That this is a 
perfectly diftin& fpecies from the plant of Ray's fyn. and confe- 
. quently from the L. ftellatum of Linn. and Hudf. will not admit 
of a doubt; and the fmall variety, which is excellently figured in 
Mr. Bryant's plate f. To. is the plant, the rays of which are fo pe- 
culiarly fenfible to the effects of moifture or drynefs in the atmo- 
fphere. This circumftance has occafioned that author to give thofe 
* I have repeatedly brought home recently opened fpecimens, the heads of which 
have appeared perfectly feffile, and which have retained that appearance for two or three 
days; till, by the drying of the fpongy coat, the peduncle has appeared. 
fanci- 
