Schistostega.] G YM N O S T O M I. 29 



centre, or apex, which is the last point of their attachment; 

 whereas, Hedwig asserts, "non integrum, sed de summitate in 

 lacinias irregulares, illico vere revolventes, decidit." 



The able authors of the Tentamen Methodi Muscorum have 

 entered much at large into the history of this Moss, and have 

 given some excellent figures of different portions, especially of the 

 Catyptra, which we have copied and added to our representation 

 of the characters of the genus, TAB. I. We have farther added a 

 delineation of the oldest state of the operculum we have been able 

 to find. Dr. Greville and Mr. Arnott, in the work just mentioned, 

 have hinted at the near affinity of Drepanophyllum of Richard 

 with Schistostega, and the latter author in his recently published 

 Disposition Methodique des Mousses, has, though not without a 

 mark of doubt, placed it in the same genus. > To this arrangement 

 we are not disposed to assent. We do not know enough of the 

 fruit of Drepanophyllum to say that in all essential points that is 

 similar, and allowing that the direction of the leaves and their in- 

 sertion on two opposite sides of the stem be the same, yet the 

 form and texture of this foliage are wholly different, and we are 

 disposed to conceive, that, if natural habits be taken into account, 

 Drepanophyllum is as much sui generis as Schistostega. 



SchJtuhr and Bridel deny the circumstance of the splitting of 

 the operculum. Nees and Hornschuch, on the other hand, describe 

 themselves to have seen the radiating lines, which we have above 

 alluded to, (figured, however, much too plainly at t. 9. /. 1. of 

 their Bryologia Germanica,) and they think to have counted 16 

 such rays. Left to itself, they say, that even in the Herbarium, 

 this membrane, (operculum) readily separates according to the 

 direction of the rays, into many teeth-like processes, which very 

 soon, on account of their extreme delicacy, break away at the ex- 

 tremities ; so that, in older specimens, nothing is seen but the 

 remains of the operculum in the inner margin of the mouth of the 

 capsule.* 



* His words are "an einem einzigen Exemplar, welches wir der Giite 

 unseres Freundes von Martius verdanken, sahen wir dieses Deckelchen noch 

 ganz vollstandig, und glaubten 16 Streifen auf denselben zu zahlen. Sich selbst 

 iiberlassen, lost sich aber diese Membran (selbst im Herbarium) nach der 

 Richtung der Streifen bald in mehrere zahnf brmige Fortsatze auf, welche sich 



