anil particularly of the Genus Milium. 2.37 



most unaceountabl}' failed. It is difficult to understand his defi- 

 nitions of the two generic characters, and next to impossible to 

 divine by what rule he distributed the species under each. 



From the Hedwigian school, which had thrown so much light 

 on the generic characters of mosses in general, and which had 

 done the most essential service in removing from Milium and 

 Bryutn those vast and discordant tribes in which the peristomium 

 is simple, every thing was to be expected upon the point in ques- 

 tion. For my own part, after having contemplated with raptu- 

 rous admiration the physiological discoveries of the illustrious 

 Hedwig, and yielded that implicit assent to his assertions and 

 deductions, which his clear and candid manner commands, I 

 turned with eagerness to the methodical part of his works. My 

 primary object Avas to learn to distinguish with certainty the ge- 

 nera of Hypnum, Bryum and Milium, about which botanists had 

 ever been in dispute. But here I was disappointed. In his dis- 

 tribution of the mosses with a single peristomium all is lucid order, 

 so far at least as his principles are admissible. In the arrange- 

 ment of those which have an inner peristomium, he appears to me 

 to run into refinements which neither lead to the knowledge of 

 natural genera, nor can easily be followed up by common ob- 

 servers. I found with some concern that Ave must rely on the 

 old mode of distinguishing Hypnum, by its lateral fruit-stalk, 

 from Bryum, the difficulties attending which are however hap- 

 pily removed by the separation of the single-fringed mosses from 

 the latter : I found moreover that Milium remained at least as 

 unintelligible as before. Indeed Hedwig has rather confused it 

 by reversing the original characters. His Bryum has a round or 

 capitate male flower; his Mnium a flat or discoid one. His most 

 able followers, Schreber, Swartz and Roth, well aware of the in- 

 sufficiency of such distinctions, united the two genera into one, 



vol. vii. 2 l while 



