Ge We TAS. God MD GHKAY apg. 
vour to demonftrate).are provided with the fame organs of 
reproduction which we obferve in other vegetables.* 
It has never yet been controverted, at leaft as to the mof- 
fes, that thefe individuals are eflentially a part of the vege= 
table kingdom. ‘They all have very diftin& and obvious. 
organs, which are eafily diftinguifhable from the roots,. 
the leaves, and the branches, and which, by analogy, 
muft be confidered as blofloms, containing fuch parts as 
are neceflary to the reprodution of every individual. 
The oppofers of the fyftem of fexual regeneration, have 
confidered thefe organized parts as an ufelefs /upervegation ;: 
“for,” fays a zealot of this fea, ‘*there are moffes whichare- 
deftitute of thofe parts which the fexualifts call fruGificati- 
on}. On the contrary, the friends of the fexual fyftem 
are all agreed in confidering thefe parts as the real organs 
of reproduction, although they differ as to the nature and 
ufe of thofe parts: Some are of opinion, that the urn§ 
(Fig. 3. 7. 14.) is the male part, and that the ftars which 
appear at the extremities of the branches, as in the Poly- 
tricum and feveral fpecies of the genius Muzum, are the 
female-organe@.. Others, with more reafon, fuppofe that 
the urn contains both fexes.. According to thefe natura-- 
lifts... 
* J have not only fubmitted thefe obfervations to the Academy of Sciences of Paris, in the 
years 1782, 1783, 1784, and 1785, but I have fhewn them the objects themfelves in ¢etail, 
efpecially to Meffrs. Adanfon, de Juffieu, and de la Marck. Ihave repeated before the 
Academy feveral of my experiments; Ihave demonftrated to them the exiftence of the Cap-= 
fule within the Urn of the Moffes, the irritability of the Cilia and their {pontaneous convul- - 
five motions immediately after the falling of the Opercule, which is the moment of fecunda-- 
tion. I have fhewn them the irritability of feveral Muthrooms when they emit their feeds, 
and efpecially in the Peziza, the Nefloc, &c. the Capfule which is formed at the extremity 
of the poiuit of a non defcript fpecies of Hydnum; and-laftly, I have fhewn the duplicity of the 
blades of the Agaricus of Linnzus, which, in the manner of pods or filique, contain a pro- 
digious quantity of fmall uval bodies, which | take tobe the feeds. If thefe authorities are 
not fufficient to convince certain fkepticks, I exhort them to make the fame obfervations them- 
felves, and | have no doubt but that they will very foon be convinced of their truth. 
+ The ftructure of the mufhrooms being different from that of the moffes, thefe general ob- - 
fervations cannot be applied tothem. When I treat of thofe plants, in another memoir, { 
fhall be particular in the defcription of their organical parts. 
+ M. Necker, botanift to the Elector Palatine, in his Phyfiology of Organized bodies,- 
§ ‘This isthe name which has been given to the fructification of the mofles, - 
§ Linozus and his followers have adopted the opinion of Dillenius, 
