j,ro3SE4 HORTUS JA:',IAICENS1S. ii;S 



of different hodJos', or else they appear as slender filaments, or folir.ceoiisljo lies, iloat- 

 in"' aiwiit in the water ; or as filaments ot^ a toiiglier texture, hanging down (Vpm the 

 branches of old trees; or as little^shrubs, or single horns, growing erect on t'le parched 

 earth of mountains and heathy places; or, finally, a; broad and foliaceous bodies, 

 sorcadinf themselves over the dry barks of trees or rocks, without any pedicel or other 

 support. 



The more perfect kinds of mosses are fonnd in the shape (tf small but regular plants, 

 divided into sevei-al branches, and clothed with leaves : these are of various forms and 

 structures; some being broad and thin, others slender as hairs ; some pellucid, others 

 opake ; some smooth, others hairy. FroRi the alas of these leaves, m some kinds, and 

 from the sunmiit of the stalks-in others, there arise heads'or capsules of various figures, 

 but all nnicapsular ; some of these are naked, and others covered with a calyptra or 

 hood ; some stand on long pedicels, and others are placed close to the stalks : these 

 heads are usually called capsules, which contain the seeds or farina. Some of the 

 mosses, it is evident, ai)proacli to the nature of plants vfliich have their m::le and fe- 

 male parts in the same flower, and others to those which have them in different ones. 

 The following arc the different kinds of mosses hitherto discovered in Jamaica : 



I. POLYTRICHUM. MANY-HATRED. 



Gen. CHAR. Capsule oblong, sometimes quadrangular, placed on a quadrangular 

 apopliysis; peristome double ; outer with thirty-two short teeth, united at the 

 base, incurved; inner a fiat membrane, transverse, glued to the apexes of tho 



teeth of the inner one ; calyjnre hairy Male-flowers discoid, or a circular bud, 

 on a different plant, terminatmg. One species is a native of Jamaica. 



CONVOLUTDM. CONVOLUTE. 



Stem simple ; leaves linear, involute, serrate at top, twisted when dry j capsute 

 cylindrical, nearly erect. 



11. BRYUM. BUDDING. 



JSF.y. CHAR. Capsule ovate-oblong; fringe double ; outerof sixteen Ijroadish teeth; 

 inner a laciniated membrane ; veil smooth ; fruit terminal, tewartz notices the 

 following species as natives of Jamaica. 



1. AGRARIUM, FIELO. 



Stemless; capsules cylindric, somewhat erect, subulate ; leaves lanceolate- 

 acute. 



C. ACUMINATUM. ACUMI^IATE. 



Capsules cylindric, erect-subulate ; branches caulescent, matted ; leaves linear. 



3 LYCOPODIOIDliS, LYCOPODirM-UKR. 



Capsules erect; peduncles short, solitary; branchlets elongate, fe^v; leaver 

 patent, hnear, acute, .serrulate, somewhat undulated. 



4. PARASITICUM. PARASITICAL. 



Capsules somewhat erect ; peduncle very short ; branchlets crowded, tamos*, 

 khort ; leaves pat^it-linear. 



U U U S. CALYCINUM, 



