CRYPTOGAMIC FRUCTIFICATION. 



77 



s<-epticism, inconsistent with impartial research, 

 wiiicli discovered itself even in the celebrated 

 Necker, urging him to exclaim rather too rashly, 

 that whatever had been or might in future be 

 said of the fructification of the mosses, he was 

 determined to regard as a fiction or a dream. 

 In this stage of progress, the celebrated Hedwig 

 first began to direct his attention to the study of 

 the mosses, when, perceiving all that had been 

 previously done, with a view to elucidate their 

 fi'uctification, to present but a chaos of confu- 

 sion and contradiction, he found it absolutely 

 necessary to renounce all sort of dependence 

 upon previous opinion and authority, and to ex- 

 amine every thing for himself. This he accord- 

 ingly did with a degree of caution, and scrupu- 

 losity, and patience never yet surjjassed; so that, 

 by applying glasses of a higher magnifying power 

 than any preceding botanist, and taking no fact 

 upon trust, he at length succeeded in obtaining 

 a clear and complete view of the subject, in dis- 

 encumbering it of the rubbish with which it had 

 been so long clogged, and in presenting to the 

 cryptoganiist a superstructure not the offspring 

 of his own fancy, but the image of nature. Ac- 

 cording to Iledwig, the mosses are, for tlie most 

 part, dicBcious, that is, they have the barren and 

 fertile flowers on separate plants, as in the family 

 ht/pnum. Many of them are, however, moncBdous, 

 or have the barren and fertile flowers distinct, 

 but placed on the same plant, as in the family 

 phascum ; a few of these are hermaphrodite, or 

 liave the two kinds of flowers united on the 

 same plant, as in the hrjjxiin aureum. 



We shall now attempt a description of the two 

 kinds of flowers. The barren flowers are a sort 

 of disks or buds,whichfrequently terminate the 

 branches of the mosses, or sit in the bosom of the 

 leaves. If they are carefully dissected under a 

 good magnifier, thoy will be found to consist of 

 an assemblage of leaves or scales, resembling the 

 other leaves of the plant in form; but generally 

 larger or more elegant, and sometimes also col- 

 oured, though never terminating in a hair. 

 Tliese Hedwig regards, though upon grounds 

 somewhat questionable, as constituting the calyx 

 of the Ijarren flower. If the leaves of this calyx 

 are now taken and carefully stript off in succes- 

 sion, the dissector will find, as he approaches 

 the centre, a number of small-thread-shaped and 

 succulent substances, closely crowded together, 

 and issuing from between the leaves, or if not so 

 issuing, occupying the centre of the disk, and 

 distinguishable into two different sorts ; some 

 consisting of an individual and transparent vis- 

 cus, and others of a longitudinal succession of 

 small and transparent vesicles united at the ex- 

 tremities, so as to exhibit a sort of jointed or 

 necklace appearance. Both of these may be 

 readily detected in the barren flowers of poly- 

 tridmm commune, if gathered in the month of 



May or June. The former Iledwig regai'ds as 

 stamens, distinguisliable into filament and anther, 

 or the anther longer and somewhat cylindrical ; 

 but generally apjiroaching more or less to club 

 or egg-shaped, and both not exceeding the one 

 fiftieth part of an inch in length. The latter 

 or necklace-looking substances, which are gen- 

 erally somewhat longer than the stamens, though 

 less in diameter, do not yet seem to be well un- 

 derstood. Iledwig, without pretending abso- 

 lutely to decide upon their use, calls them merely 

 the succulent tlireads that accompany the 

 stamens; but seems, at the same time, to believe 

 that they assist fecundation by means of securing 

 a plentiful supply of moisture, while he infers 

 the stamens to be such, from the presumptive 

 evidence of the similarity of their substance 

 and structure, to that of the stamens of perfect 

 plants; and of their opening also at the top when 

 ripe, and discharging a fine pollen, which cir- 

 cumstance may be seen by means of placing a 

 stamen fuUy ripe under a high magnifier, and 

 wetting it with a drop of water. The summit of 

 the anther bursts open, and the poUon explodes. 

 The fertile flowers are like the barren, gener- 

 ally at the extremities of the branches, but they 

 are not unfrequently lateral or radical. They 

 are not furnished with any integument that 

 can be decidedly called a calyx, though the 

 leaves immediately surrounding these are gener- 

 ally different both in size and structure, from 

 the other leaves of the plant ; and in the genus 

 hypnum are so very obviously different, as to 

 have obtained the proper appellation of the 

 perichielium or fence, being an assemblage of 

 loosely imbricated scales, terminating in a fine 

 hair or bristle, rather than red leaves. But if 

 they are not to be regarded as fonning a true 

 c;ilyx, or part of the real leaves of the species, 

 they ai-e at least to be regarded as constituting 

 floral leaves, both from their contiguity to the 

 flower and analogy to the floral leaves and per- 

 fect plants. In their original distribution they 

 form generally a sort of bud, from the centre of 

 which the flower issues, presenting, when first 

 discoverable, the appearance of a fine and mi- 

 nute point, projecting froiu the bosom of the 

 leaves. This incipient step of growtli is very 

 distinctly visible in the fertile flowers of/i<mana 

 hj/grometrica, a, if 

 "'' gathered about the 



month of January, 

 which are also ac- 

 companied by a 

 number of succulent 

 pistils, somewhat 

 similar to those 

 ah-eady described aa 

 accompanying tlie 

 barren flower, and 

 Iledwig calls tlium 



equally unaccountable. 



