CRYPTOGAMIA 35,3 



valve, opening by a vertical lid,/ 213t. Seeds very 

 numerous and minute. The barren flowers of mosses 

 consist of an indefinite number of nearly cylindrical 

 almost sessile anthers, / 190 ; the fertile flowers of 

 one, rarely more, perfect pistils, accompanied by sev- 

 eral barren pistils,/ 192. Both stamens and pistils 

 are intermixed with numerous succulent jointed 

 threads, / 191, which perhaps answer the purpose 

 of a calyx or corolla, as far as protection is concerned. 

 Some few species of moss have the stamens and pis- 

 tils associated in the same flower, but they are gen- 

 erally separate. Hypniim, Engl. Bot. t. 1424, 1425, 

 has a scaly sheath, or perich^tium,/. 150, at the base 

 of Its fruit-stalk, composed of leaves very different 

 from the foliage of the plant. This is considered as 

 a sort of calyx, see/>. 202, and as such is allowed to 

 enter into the generic character ; but there is some 

 reason to esteem it rather of the nature of bracteas. 

 The capsule of Splachnum, Engl. Bot. t. 144, &c., 

 stands on a peculiar fleshy base, called apophysis,/, 

 189 a. 



Micheli in his Genera Plantarum, published in 

 1729, tab. 59, has well represented the parts above 

 described, though he mistook their use, being quite 

 ignorant of the fecundation of plants. Dillenius took 

 the one flower precisely for the other, and yet absurd- 

 ly called capstila what he believed to be anthera. Lin- 

 nasus, who had previously formed just ideas on the 

 subject, as appears from his manuscript Tour to Lap- 



t This part in Phascum only does not separate from the cap- 

 sule. 



