Miscellunies. 171 
is fixed to throw a feeble light upon this relic, and adds not a little to 
the interest it excites. * 
A great scientific meeting was held at York, in the month of July, 
1831. The object was similar to that of the German society held 
last year at Hamburgh. The sittings were continued for a week. 
The Lord Mayor and the authorities of York entered heartily into 
the plan. 
% % ey % * * 5 pg 
Observations requested concerning the Fructification of the Mosses. 
Extracted from a letter of M. Durieu de Maisonneuve, Correspond- - 
ing Member of the Linnean Society of Bordeaux, to M. Charles 
des Moulins, Vice-President. Translated from the first volume of 
the Bulletin @ Histoire Naturelle dela Société Linnéenne de Bor- 
deaux, by Jacop Porter. © : 
Paris, 1826. 
You were very fortunate in discovering the Hypnum cuspidatum in 
fruit, in Perigord. It commonly bears fruit in the Pyrenees, but in 
the interior of France, I have never found it in fruit, except once, 
at Nantes. I take this opportunity of laying before you some reflec- 
tions concerning the fructification of the mosses. A person of my 
acquaintance has been endeavoring to ascertain why such a species 
of moss bears fruit in one country rather than in another, where the _ 
temperature or the climate would seem to have no different influence — 
‘pon the development of the capsules. 1 might cite a great number 
of species, that are in point, such as the Hypnum splendens, Schreberi 
and others, The Hypnum triquetrum, which, in certain countries, 
senerally bears fruit, is barren in Britain and at Bordeaux. — It is 
very probable that all the mosses present the like phenomenon ; and, 
" Support of this opinion, I would cite the Hypnum cupr essiforme, a 
very Common moss, which bears fruit abundantly throughout France ; 
but I have constantly found it barren at Madrid and in its environs, 
Which proves that there it is, at least, rare in fruit. : 
The development and the want of the fructification certainly de- 
Pend on causes, of which we are ignorant, and which it appears to 
Me very difficult to conjecture. An observation, which I would mate 
0 you, (and such observations might, without doubt, be multiplied 
indefinitely , Were one’s attention directed closely to the subject,) vill 
show that the physical causes, by which we might hope to explain 
is phenomenon, have really no part in it, or, at most, contribute 
(0 it only in a very subordinate degree. The last winter I noticed 
oe. 
