Oil the Parts of Fructification in Mosses, 315 



be in the hand of every scientific botanist, I refer for a full 

 account of M. Beauvois' hypothesis, and confine myself to ob- 

 serving, that Avhat is generally called the capsule of Mosses is 

 by him considered as the containing organ of both sexes ; that 

 the granules which fled wig supposes to be seeds, he regards as 

 pollen ; the real seeds according to him being imbedded in the 

 substance of that body which occupies tbe centre of the cap- 

 sule, and to which botanists have given the name of columniila 

 or columella. The supposed seeds of this author, hoivever, 

 having entirely escaped the two most acute and experienced ob- 

 servers in this department of botany, Schmidel and Hedwig, in 

 all the species of which they have given dissections, it might 

 fairly be concluded that they are not of universal existence, and 

 this alone would be sufficient perhaps to overturn the hypo- 

 thesis. But it would be more satisfactory, if, while the accuracy 

 of these excellent observers was confirmed in other instances, 

 the cause of that appearance, which I apprehend has misled 

 M. Beauvois, could at the same time be pointed out. The 

 species more particularly described and figured by him in the 

 American Transactions, is Hypmim velutinum; which therefore, 

 had it been in a proper state, I should have preferred as the sub- 

 ject of my examination ; but as he asserts that his observations 

 were repeated, and with similar results, on all the species of 

 Mosses found in the neiglibourhood of Paris and Lisle, I have 

 chosen Tunaria hijgrometrica, perhaps the most general plant in 

 existence; which therefore must have been examined by him, and 

 is within the reach of every one. 



As, according to M. Beauvois, the action of the pollen on 

 the seeds does not take place till the separation of the operculum, 

 he probably did not conceive it necessary to observe the capsule 

 until it had acquired its full size, and was in fact nearly ripe, 



or, 



