GENERAL REMARKS. 359 



o. a. a. Continuation of the Columella to the apex of 



the operculum. 

 b. c. Young female. 

 d. e. Ditto. 



g. Unimpregnated female. 



h. i.j. and the figures without numbers, are seta in different 



stages of growth. 

 f. On outside of oblong body. 



Sir J. Smith's description of these female bodies. (Rees 

 Cyclop, article Musci) is not I think correct. According to the 

 above instance at least, his description of their being most solid 

 at the base only applies to them after the first changes have 

 occurred. The subsequent description of the elevation of 

 the style and stigma by the growth of the germ en is applica- 

 ble, but not so when he says, " still more by the production, 

 or elongation of a peculiar organ, termed the fruit-stalk, on 

 which the germen stands, and by whose sudden growth the 

 young veil or calyptra is torn from its base and carried up along 

 with the germen or young fruit." This he appears to give as 

 Hedwig's view of the structure. About this I know nothing, 

 except that Valentine has satisfactorily refuted all or most of 

 Hedwig's notions. 



The above cited passage is a lamentable instance of want 

 of observation and consequently of precision, nothing what- 

 ever is said of the growth of the seta, added to which we 

 have the appearance of a new organ, the calyptra totally un- 

 explained. From what Sir James observes a little further on, 

 he has evidently forgot that he had already impregnated the 

 female flower, but he makes sure of it by the means of an 

 after impregnation through the means of cc a highly cellular 

 or vascular mass.'' 



This very remarkable stucture has perhaps nothing analo- 

 gous to it, although the earlier changes certainly resemble 

 certain changes in certain ovula as in Cynomorum etc. ? 



But then we have causes operating and producing effects of, 

 so to say, a more complicated nature than in Phcenogamous 



