374( CUYPTOGAMIA. 



land, too implicitly submitted his own judgment to 

 that of Dillenius, and udoptt^d his hypoihtsis, at the 

 same time correcting, as he thought, his phraseology. 

 Hence the whole glare of the blunder of Dilienius has 

 fallen on Linnaeus ; for while we read in the Linntean 

 definitions of mosses every where the word anthera^ 

 and in those of Dilienius, usually accompanying them, 

 eapsula ; few persons, who have lately been instruct- 

 ed by Hedwig that the part in question is really a 

 capsule, take the trouble to recollect that Dilienius so 

 grossly misused that word. Various ideas have been 

 started on this subject by Haller, Necker, and others, 

 which could only claim attention while it remained in 

 great obscurity. The excellent Hedwig has entire- 

 ly the merit of an original discoverer in this branch of 

 ) physiology. He examined all that had been done be- 

 fore his time, detected the truth, raised mosses from 

 seed,/ 193 — 196, and established their characters on 

 the principles we have already explained. 



The Linnaean genera of Mosses are chiefly found- 

 ed on the situation of the capsule, whether lateral or 

 terminal, with some other circumstances. They arc 

 too few, and not strictly natural. Hedwig first 

 brought into notice the structure of the fringe, peris- 

 tomium, winch in most mosses borders the orifice of 

 the capsule. This is cither simple, f. 189 b, or 

 double, / 213, 214, and consists either of separate 

 teeth, or of a plaited and jagged membrane. The 

 external fringe is mostly of the former kind, the in- 

 ner, when present, of the latter. The number of teeth, 

 remarkably constant in each genus and species, is 



