mosses. 223 



on the same plant. The former are the stars, which 

 terminate the branches Fig. 130, or the buds that sit 

 in the bosom of the leaves ; and the latter are the 

 urn shaped capsules, Figs. 117 and 129 which are usu- 

 ally elevated above the rest of the plant, and concealed 

 when young, by an exterior membrane. 



The fertile flowers of Mosses present an arrange- 

 ment well worthy of our attention. " They are not 

 furnished with any integument that can be decidedly 

 called a calyx, though the leaves immediately sur- 

 rounding them, are generally different both in size and 

 structure from the other leaves of the plant ; in the 

 genus Hypnum, they are so very obviously different, 

 as to have obtained the proper appellation of the Peri- 

 chcztium, or fence, being an assemblage of loose imbri- 

 cated scales, rather than real leaves. 



But if they are not to be regarded as the real calyx, 

 or part of the real leaves, they are at least to be re- 

 garded as floral leaves, both from their contiguity to the 

 flower, and analogy to the floral leaves of other plants. 

 In their original distribution, they form a peculiar bud, 

 from the centre of which the flower issues, present- 

 ing when first visible, the appearance of a fine and 

 minute point, projecting from the bosom of the leaves. 



As the process of fructification advances, the parts 

 of the flower begin to assume a different appearance ; 

 the fine and pointed substances expanding into a cone, 

 invested by a thin membranaceous integument, which 

 is adherent at the summit and base, and finally sepa- 

 rates into two distinct portions. The under portion, 

 which is placed within the pcrichcetium, remains as be- 

 fore attached to the base of the fructification, and is 

 termed the sheath; while the upper portion adheres to 

 the summit of the capsule, and invests it, in the form 



