208 MEMOIR on tHe PLANTS cAttep 
Such is the detail of that part of the moffes which we 
call the fruGtification, and which Dillenius and Linnzus be- 
lieved to be the male organs. I fhall here annex a table, 
in order to enable the reader, by a comparative view of the 
whole fubject, to form a more precife judgment of my ob- 
fervations™*. 
Being led by a natural inclination to the ftudy of this 
family of vegetables, which, [am afraid, has not been fuf-. 
ficiently attended to, I have devoted my whole attention to 
it. I have obferved them in their different {tates and peri- 
ods of vegetation, as well in the places of their fpontane- 
ous growth, as at my own home, that I might the better 
difecover the moment when the pollen was burfting from 
theurn. The following is the refult of my obfervations. 
I found that what the naturalifts have confidered as a 
thread, or filament, fupporting the urn, is, in fa, a real 
tube, continued to the urn, which is a part, and the 
end, of it. I denominated the whole a corolla. This tube 
being carefully opened with a very fharp penknife, difco- 
vers a white tranfparent filament, extending itfelf to the 
urn (Fig. rs. A.). The urn being opened, in like man- 
ner, when fully ripe, is found to contain the fragments 
of the dilacerated capfule (Fig. 15. E.). Thefe fragments 
«are of the fame colour and nature as the filament con- 
tained in the tube. . 
After having difcovered thefe veftiges of an unknown 
organization, I was defirous of obferving the fame in the 
urn before the emiflion of the pollen. I made choice of the 
Polytricum commune of Linneus, as being larger and 
more proper for my obfervations. I took off the opercule, 
without injuring the other parts, and, for this purpofe, 
I always 
* I have made no particular mention of Hedwig’s fyftem, which fecms to have been adopted 
by feveral naturalifts. It is not, however, more adimiflible than the reft: it is liable to an 
infinity of exceptions, which are a fufficient reafon for rejecting it. Ata future period, [ 
fhall demonftrate the fallacy of this new opinion, which miftakes for male organs the glandy. 
ar bodies, which are fituated at the extremities of the ftellated branches. 
