CRYPTOGAMIA. =—-——i “‘<sss«i 
ed downwards, the appearance is termed an apophysis, 
h is evident in the genus Splachnum. __- oc 
In Andrea, Phascum, and Voitia, the operculum is per- 
sistent. In Andrea the theca dehisces by four valves. 
_ Exampres.—Polytrichum; Hypnum; Sphagnum, found — 
in bogs, and called Bog-moss; Phascum (earth-moss) ; P. 
euspidatum is common on moist and shady banks; P. pilife- i 
rum is abundant on dry banks and sandy fields; J ortula 
uralis (Bryum murale) on walls and stones; T. ruralis— 
(Bryum rurale) on roofs of houses, trees, and wall tops. 
Funaria hygrometrica is abundant on old walls and buildings, 
d on dry and barren soils. Mosses are abundant every 
Where; on trees, house-tops, walls, rocks, in bogs, in rivers, 
on cow-dung which has been long exposed to the weather, 
and on the ground. : 
The theese are considered the seed-vessels; but the na- 
ture of the axillary bodies is not well known. Hedwig sup- _ 
posed that they were anthers; while Sprengel considered 
them as buds, and Palisot de Beauvois held the same soni 
The latter physiologist considers the theca as an 
hermaphrodite flower, the central columella being the pistil — 
enclosing the seeds or sporules, while the surrounding gran- 
ules are the pollen; while Hill regarded the granules as 
true ovules, and the teeth of the peristomium as stamens. 
The axillary bodies cannot be anthers, because they can 
Strike root and become new plants; and because the theca 
(Often arrives at maturity before the supposed stamens or 
anthers are developed, and even when they do not exist. 
The columella cannot be viewed as a pistil, for it is often a 
hard solid body; nor the teeth of the fringe as : th 
they are absent in many mosses. It is most proba 
these axillary bodies are buds, capable of reproduc 
plant, somewhat resembling the bulbils of some - 
