458 NEW ARRANGEMENT OF 
ter to perceive how Dioscorides * and Galen ^ could 
have applied it to mosses. Dillenius J, however, throws 
some hght on this question, when he traces the plant of 
Dioscorides to belong to the genus Usnea. Nevertheless, 
with all the want of connexion between it and the true 
mosses, we find that Laur. Montin, in the second volume 
of the " Amcenitates Academicae,'"" p, 248, bestowed the 
name upon the present genus, with the following character : 
" Calyx calyptrata, operculata, receptaculo membranaceo, 
colorato, maximo, imposita/' After which we have these 
remarks: " Genericis itaque characteribus propositis, no- 
men antiquum, Splachnum, hinc adjungam, mutatum a 
DioscoRiDE, qui Muscis hoc imposuit. Nomen genericum 
characterem essentiaiem exprimens in promtu quidem me 
habuisse non erit diffitendum ; sed, ne mori a botanicis re- 
cepto contrarius viderer, suadente etiam Fund. Bot. § 241. 
vagum illud certo generi praefigere volui. Origo hujus 
nominis omnino est Graeca, a voce 'Z%Kuyx^Qv^ abjecta litera 
y, suos ducat natales." We regret, however, that Montin 
did not adopt another name. 
The species observed to be natives of Great Britain be- 
fore the time of Dillenius, and represented by him, are, 
S. ampullaceum, sph^ricum, and mnioides. A fourth, 
S. rubrum, from Lapland, is inserted in the Appendix. 
MoNTiN, in the essay we have quoted, unites the three first, 
and adds S. luteum under the name of Jlavum. Since, 
then, other species have been described from time to time. 
Hedwig, in his " Stirpes Cryptogamae," has three species, 
not known to Linn^us, S. FrcelicManum^ iirceolatum, and 
• Diosc. 1. 1. c. 20. 
t Galen, rav icoc-vcc tott. ^' c- !• 
Djll. Hist. Muse. p. 240. 
