FRUCTIFICATION; OF THE CRYPTOGAMI/F. % 



wood vessel leading to it. The stamens are said to be per- 

 manent ; but this is certainly not the case, since it is only 

 once a year the powder is found in the hairs: but as the old 

 ones remain a long time after they have performed their 

 office, before they decay and fall off; it gives them the ap- 

 pearance of perpetuity. 



TheUlvee. 



Though 1 at first intended to give a marine plant, yet Fructification 

 being so thoroughly acquainted with the ulva crassata ; I ° l e ""' 

 preferred showing its dissection. It is formed of a mem- 

 branaceous frond, with minute thick set tufts of branched 

 filaments jointed, and beaded ; the female being the ball ; 

 and the top, which is perforated, constituting the pistil, 

 (see fig. 8). Under the tufts, G, fig. 7> the seeds are im- 

 bedded in regular order, each holding by the line of life ; 

 see GG the pointed filament, which proceeds from the 

 pistil, and the wood vessels of which run up round it, and 

 serve as a cuticle to it; showing themselves also on each 

 side of the capsule and its stem as seen at HH, fig. 8. 

 When the plant is first taken out of the water, and gently 

 dried, if its pollen is ripe, and the hairs stick not on the 

 frond ; when breathed on they move more than the males 

 of the fuci. I have seen them rising and falling with a con- 

 stant succession of motions, which gave to the plant an ap- 

 pearance of life difficult to describe; but if too wet, or too 

 dry, they move not. I found much of this ulva in a pond 

 at Bellevue, near Exeter. The ulva pruniformis much 

 agrees with this ; there are certainly two sorts ; one re- 

 sembling in its fructification the lemna, and the other 

 the crassula ; but, as I got it twice only, and then rather in 

 a dry, decayed state, I was fearful of making some mistake, 

 if I should attempt to review it. 



The Musci. 



It is very painful to me, to be obliged to contradict those, Fructification 

 whose superiority I so gratefully acknowledge ; as every oi mosses « 

 botanist must the uncommon labours of a Dillenius, 

 a Michelli, or a Gmelin : yet I cannot but differ from them 

 respecting the fructification, which I would thus describe. 



The 



