Mosses. 30-5 



oy a lid or operculum, which is thrown off when the spores 

 or reproductive parts are fit to be dispersed. Wheit thus 

 spontaneously thrown off, a new and peculiar set of parts comes 

 in view ; it will be found that the lid covered a kind of tuft of 

 twisted hairs, which at first look as if they stopped up the 

 mouth of the theca. But cutting it perpendicularly from the 

 bottom to the top, will show by the sectional view thus obtain- 

 ed, that the hairs in reality arise from the rim of the theca in 

 a single row ; these are the teeth of the fringe or peristome ; 

 the latter term designating the ring of hairs. The nature of 

 this fringe varies in different genera, and in some it is entirely 

 wanting. What office it may have to perform we can only 

 guess ; it seems to be connected with the dispersion of the 

 spores, and often acts in the most beautiful hygrometrica man- 

 ner. Taking a theca when dry, and putting it. in a damp 

 place or in water, will cause its teeth to uncoil and disentangle 

 themselves with a graceful and steady motion, very beautiful 

 to observe. Inside the theca the spores are confined ; they lie 

 there in a thin bag which is open at the upper end, and which 

 surrounds a central column, called the columella ; the}'- are 

 exceedingly minute. Accurate investigation of botanists has 

 led to the discovery, that there is a minute and concealed sys- 

 tem of organs, which in many cases, precedes the appearance 

 of the theca. It has been thought that these organs represent 

 pistles and anthers of an imperfect kind ; but this is somewhat 

 doubtful. At the end of the shoots of some Mosses the leaves 

 spread into a starry form, and become colored with brown. 

 Amongst these lie a number of cylindrical whitish green 

 bodies, -which are transparent at the point and filled with a 

 cloudy granular matter, which it is said they discharge with 

 some degree of violence, and these are ihe supposed anthers. 

 The second kind of apparatus is shown in the bosom of other 

 leaves, shortly after the Mosses have begun to grow, a cluster 

 of little greenish bodies, thickest at their lower end, tapering 

 upwards into a slender pipe, and at last, expanding into a 

 shallow cup. After a certain time, the pipe and cup, which 

 by some are considered style and stigma, shrivel up, and the 

 lower part or ovary, swells, acquires a stalk, and finally, 

 changes to a theca. 

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