THE GENERA OF MOSSES. 
Ill 
to me an insurmountable objection, that the supposed 
anthers can again produce buds and strike roots ; which is 
certainly the case with regard to the disks of Polytrichum 
commune, Bartrama Jhntana, Bryum palustre, undula- 
tum^ cuspidatum, punctatum, and with those of Tortula 
ruralis. In Bryum argenteum we see the buds containing 
the supposed anthers constantly drop off, strike root, and 
produce new plants : this I have observed myseW times out 
of number. Still more in point is the experiment first made 
by David Meese, of sowing the stellulae Polytrichum 
commune, containing merely club-shaped bodies ; when he 
found that plants came up, which in their turn produced 
fruit. Another excellent naturalist, Dr Roth, has made 
similar observations with regard to Hypnum squarrosum 
and Bryum argenteum^'' He afterwards adds, " It is more 
probable, therefore, that these supposed anthers are mere 
gemmae, produced by the superabundance of the juices, 
and hence surrounded by succulent filaments 
Paltsot de Beauvois differed from Hedwig; he af- 
firmed that the theca contained the pollen, and that the 
columella (his theca) enclosed the sporules t, which were 
fecundated by the pollen by means of the ciliae, as they 
escaped through the orifice at the summit J. This opinion 
our justly celebrated countryman Mr Brown found no 
difficulty in refuting, by showing, that what Palisot sup- 
posed to be pollen, was nothing more than a part of the 
sporulge, which had been carried into the interior of the 
columella by the dissecting instrument I]. 
* Int. to Crypt. Plants, p. 262, of Engl. edit. 
-|- Prodrome des cinquieme et sixieme families de riEtheogamie, p. 4, 
X Same work, p. 10. 
II Linn. Trans- vol. x. p. 314, 
