Paris of Fructification in Mosses'. 315 



pencil, the greater part of the giaiuilos was removed. A trans- 

 verse section at an earlier stage of the capsule, before the falling 

 of the calyptra, exhibited, as I expected, fewer granules on the 

 substance of the columella, and which were reuioveable in like 

 manner. Lastly, by a longitudinal section, in which, if well per- 

 formed, the scalpel could not be supposed to carry any part of 

 the pollen over the surface of the columella, I obtained a distinct 

 view of this part, perfectly free from these supposed seeds, and 

 evidently consisting of large cells filled with an uniform pulpy 

 substance; a continuation of which occupied the cavity of the 

 operculum. 



From these observations, even added to those of Schmidel 

 and Hedwig, though they seem conclusive against the hypothesis 

 of M. Beauvois, I by no means pretend to reason strictly re- 

 specting the whole order : on the contrary, from the conversa- 

 tions I have had with my ingenious and accurate friend Mr. 

 Francis Bauer, as well as from some observations of my own, I 

 am disposed to believe that considerable diversities may exist in 

 the placentation of Mosses : that in some cases the seeds may be 

 formed in a much greater portion of the columnula than in 

 others: and it is even not improbable that in certain cases its 

 whole substance may be converted into seeds; or, to speak more 

 accurately, that it may produce seeds even to the centre, and that 

 the cells in which they were probably formed may be re-ab- 

 sorbed. Tiiis 1 am inclined to think is the case in Phascum al~ 

 ternifolium of Dickson, in the ripe capsule of which there is 

 hardly the vestige of a columnula; and I have observed the same 

 structure in two new species of Anodontium of Bridel ; which, 

 if it equally exists in the only species of this genus hitherto de- 

 scribed, would perhaps considerably strengthen its character. 

 In these cases the inner membrane is also evanescent ; and such 



a struc- 



