112 
NEM^ AKRAXGEMT^N^^ OF 
In thus supporting what seems to have been suggested 
by DiLLENius, and confirmed by Richard, &c., we do 
not stand singly, having on our side one of the most acute 
muscologists of which the world can boast. " The more 
intimately we become acquainted,"" says Dr Hooker *, 
" with the reproductive organs of the acotyledonous or 
cryptogamic plants, the more apparent is it, in my opinion, 
that there are no sexes, as in the phaenogamous plants, no 
stamens, and no pistil, nor any thing analogous to them ; 
consequently no true seed, which can only be produced 
through their co-operation. The structure of the seeds 
themselves (more properly sporules) tends greatly to con- 
firm such an opinion ; there being, in reality, no distinction 
into cotyledon radicle or plumule; in short, no embryo, 
any more than there is in the little bulbs seen upon the 
stalks of the Onion tribe, and upon Polygonum viviparum, 
&c., which yet equally produce perfect plants." 
That part of Mosses which contains the sporulse, has been 
by some termed capsula,or capsule ; others have adopted the 
name theca, which, on account of the structure differing 
materially from the capsule of cotyledonous plants, and 
also somewhat from the similar organ in other acotyledon- 
ous orders, we prefer to capsule, being, at the same time, 
less liable to ambiguity ; a circumstance very desirable in 
the present period, wlien the great divisions of the natural 
system are daily becoming better understood, and a pecu- 
liar nomenclature for the abstruser departments more and 
more necessary. 
The theca is always unilocular, contrary to the opinion 
of Palisot de Beauvois, who separates Fogofiaium, and 
Polijtrichura^ on accoimt of the simple and multilocular 
* Flora Scotica, Pt. 2. p, 1. note. 
