202DISTINCTIONSBF/TWEENC011OLLAANT)CALYX. 



which is a Daphne with petals. In Trollius, t. 28, 

 and HdleboruSy t. 200 and 6 13, Linnaeus considers as 

 Petals what Jussieu, following Vaillant, thinks a Calyx. 

 Of these plants we shall soon have occasion to speak 

 again. 



I cannot but consider-as a sort of Corolla the Qalyptra 

 or Veil of Mosses, which Linnaeus reckoned a Calyx. 

 Schreber, very deep and critical in his inquiries con- 

 cerning these plants, and Hedwig, so famous for his 

 discoveries among them, were both of this opinion, 

 though the latter seems to have relinquished it. The 

 organ in question is a membranous hood, covering the 

 unripe fruit of these diminutive vegetables, like an 

 extinguisher, f. 151 ; but soon torn from its base, and 

 elevated along with the ripening capsule. See Engl. 

 Bof. t. 558, &c. The great peculiarity of this part, 

 whatever it be called, consists in its summit perform- 

 ing the office of a stigma, as Hedwig first remarked. 

 In Jiingermannia, f. 152, t. 771, &c., the very same 

 part, differing only in usually bursting at the top to let 

 the fruit pass, is named by Linnseus a perich&tium* 

 but very incorrectly, as we have already hinted. 



Whatever office the petals may perform with respect 

 to air and light, it is probable that the oblong summit 

 of the Spadiv in Amm> t. 1298, answers the same 

 purpose. When this part has been for a short time 

 exposed to the light, it assumes a purplish brown hue, 

 which M. Sennebier seems to attribute to the same 

 cause which he thinks produces the great 'heat ob- 



