Miscellaaies. 171 



is fixed to throw a feeble light upon this relic, and adds not a litde 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 authojities of York entered heartily into 

 the plan. 



Ohservations 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 d''Histoire JVaturelle de la Societe Linneenne de Bor- 

 deaux, by Jacob Porter. 



Paris, 182G. 



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 Finance, 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 a,nother, where the 

 temperature or the climate would seem to have no different influence 

 upon the development of the capsules. I 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, 

 generally bears fruit, is barren in Britain and at Bordeaux. It is 

 very probable that all the mosses present the like phenomenon; and, 

 in 'support of this opinion, I would cite the Hyimum cupressiforme, a 

 very common moss, which bears fruit abundandy throughout Frauce; 

 but I have constantly found it barren at Madrid and in its environs, 

 which proves that diere it is, at least, rare in fruit. 



The development and die want of the fructification certainly de- 

 pend on causes, of which we are ignorant, and which it apj)ears to 

 me very diflicult to conjecture. An observation, which I would state 

 to you, (and such observations might, without doubt, be multiplied 

 indefinitely, were one's attention directed closely to the subject,) will 

 show that the physical causes, by which we might hope to explain 

 this phenomenon, have really no part in it, or, at most, contribute 

 to it only in a very subordinate degree. The hist winter I noticed 



