DECEMBER. 541 



Nature may require their services. But besides the 

 fruit that every kind of moss exhibits, some species 

 bear leaves spread into a starry form ; among which 

 lie a number of cylindrical whitish-green bodies, trans- 

 parent at the point, and filled with a cloudy granular 

 matter. These have been considered as anthers by 

 some botanists, while the cluster of greenish pipe-like 

 filaments that precedes the appearance of the thecse 

 were described as pistils. SPRENGEL, however, over- 

 turns this opinion by stating that he has seen the 

 supposed anthers drop off, and strike root like gemmce, 

 or off-set buds, which he supposes they are ; still it is 

 remarkable that the star-bearing plants never produce 

 urns, nor the urn-bearing stars. Dr. LHTDLEY con- 

 siders that the calyptra, operculum, and teeth of the 

 peristome of mosses are all modified leaves, and that 

 therefore the urn is more analogous to a flower than a 

 seed-vessel. However this may be, the urn at any rate 

 contains the minute dust or sporules from which 

 young plants germinate, and this has been proved by 

 Mr. DRTJHMOND, who succeeded in raising more than 

 thirty different kinds of mosses from seed. Mosses 

 have been arranged in genera, according to the pre- 

 sence or absence of a fringe at the mouth of the urn, 

 the number of its processes, and whether single or 

 double. I shall here only advert to a few of the more 

 remarkable, referring the enquirer to HOOKER and 

 TAYLOR'S Muscologia Britannica, where all the mosses 

 of Britain are described, and many of them figured. 

 According to LESTDLEY, about eight hundred species 

 are now known, but probably a considerable number 

 remain to be described. 



Whoever enters upon the study of these minute 



