232 STRUCTURE OF MOSSES. 



tion has been discovered beyond the northern 

 tropic. 



A species found in North America, called the 

 Sensitive Fern, Onoc'lea sensib'ilis, is said to wi- 

 ther immediately on being touched by the human 

 hand, though it may be touched by other bodies 

 without injury. Sprengel, a German botanist, 

 asserts that he repeated this experiment several 

 times, and always with the same effect. 



The MOSSES, which form the second order of 

 the class Cryptogamia, have roots and leaves 

 something like those of other plants ; but the fruit 

 is very different. Small threads, like the filaments 

 of stamens, generally grow out of the bosom of 

 the leaves, and support little roundish bodies re- 

 sembling anthers, but which are really the capsules 

 that contain the seeds. These capsules are hollow, 

 of various figures, and in general furnished with 

 what is called a Calyp'tra, or Veil, like a little ex- 

 tinguisher ; and when this is removed, the mouth 

 of the capsule itself, which sometimes has a Lid 

 besides, is found to be surrounded with one or two 

 rows of fringe, of great delicacy, and of surprising 

 regularity in the number of the teeth that compose 

 it. The genera of mosses are founded, chiefly, upon 

 the situation of the capsule ; and on other circum- 

 stances, among which the structure of the fringe 

 at the mouth is the most important. The form of 

 the leaves of mosses is extremely simple: they are 



