C 189 ) 
rounds the unripe capfules ; as they increase 
in fize, it fplits at the bottom, and finally be- 
comes very fhort. 
The beauty and curiofity of the ftruclure 
of the capfules of moffes, with their whole 
elegant apparatus, may have detained me too 
long upon this fubjeel; but it is my wifli, 
by interefting my readers in the hiftory of 
their outer habits, to induce fome of the 
more inquiring among them to enter upon 
an accurate inveftigation of their parts and 
properties. If the account I have given of 
fome of the ge'nera is in any degree found 
amufmg, it is to Mr, Curtis I am indebted for 
the power of having made it fo. To thoie 
who can have accefs to his accurate and ele- 
gant plates, with his obfervations thereon, the 
clafs Cryptogamia muft be peculiarly intereft- 
ing. But his London Flora being a work of 
too much expenfe to be of general utility, I 
am happy to have it my power to recommend 
to my readers the figures and obfervations on 
this difficult clafs, which may be found in 
Dr. Smith's Englim botany. To his accu- 
rate defcriptions by the pen, and thofe of the 
pencil by Mr. Sowerby, we owe much infor- 
mation on the algae tribe, which is now to 
be 
