8f^ jJilYPTOGAMlA. 



presence of the involucrum, and especially the direc- 

 tion in which it bursts. See Tracts relating to Nat^ 

 Hist. 215, t. L 



Poly podium^ Engl. Bot. t. 1139, has no involu- 

 crum ; Aspidium, t. 1458 — -146 i, has a single, and 

 Scolopeiidriiim, t. 1150, a double one. Osmunda, t. 

 209, has been remarked by Professor Swaitz to 

 have a spurious rin^^. It is one of those ferns the 

 lobes of whose frond are metamorphosed, as it were, 

 into spikes of capsules. Botrychium of Swartz, more 

 distinctly spiked, and having no vestige of a ring, is 

 separated by him from Osmunda. See one species of 

 it in Engl Bat. t. 318. Ophioglossum, t, 108, and 

 Equisetum^ t. 915, 929, are other examples of spiked 

 ferns. Each seed of the latter is embraced by 4 fila- 

 ments, judged by Hedwig to be the t.tamens. Sup- 

 posed ferns with radical fructifications arc Pilularia^ t, 

 521, and Isoetes, t. 1084 ; but the foimer might pos- 

 sibly be referred to Monoeaa Polyandria, and latter to 

 Monoecia Monandna, as the system at present stands. 

 Lycopodium^ t. 224, 1148, &c., is a fern, at least in 

 my opinion, with axillary fructification. 



% Musci. Mosses. These are really herbs* with dis^ 

 tinct leaves and frequently as distinct a stem. Their 

 conical membranous corolla is called a calyptra.f. 151, 

 or veil, its summit being the stigma. This veil clothes 

 the capsule, which, before the seed ripens, is elevated 

 on a fruit-stalk. The capsule is of oiie cell and one 



* Hedwig's term musci f rondo si is incorrect 



