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I fhall not trouble you, to whom I very well know 
there is no need of repeating any Part of the Labours 
of the antient or later Naturalifts, with an Account 
of the erroneous Opinions of others on this Subjed 5 
you will find, by this Account, that thofe who have 
been ufed to judge well in other Parts of Botany, 
have been altogether miftaken here : And even the ac- 
curate Mr. Hook y who of all others has come neareft a 
Difcovery of the Truth, and who actually faw fomc 
Part of the Organization of thefe little Bodies, was 
fo far from making the leaft Guefs at the Nature and 
Ufes of what he faw, that he even miftook the 
Structure of it. 
The particular Species of Mofs, whofe Head I here 
fend you a Defcription of, is the Hypnum terrejire y 
tricho'ideSy hiteovirenSy vulgar Cy majus , capitulis 
ereffis. Rail Synopf. ed. 3. p. 84. Hypnum vul- 
gar e, fericeum, recurvum , capjuUs ereBis cufpidatiSy 
Dill. Hid. Mufc. 323. It is frequent on old Walls, 
and there is a Specimen of it in the third Volume of 
the Hortus Jiccus of Englifh Plants of my collecting, 
which you honour with a Place in your Library. 
The Head of this Mofs appears to the naked Eye (as at 
Fig. 3. Tab. I.) of a pale-brown Colour, and fmooth 
Surface, and is in Part cover'd with a membranaceous 
Calyptra , relembling in Shape an Extinguifher, or a 
Funnel inverted. When this Calyptra is taken off, 
and the Head placed before the Microfcope, the Sur- 
face of it is feen to be ridg'd with longitudinal Stritfy 
the Bafis of the Head is of a dark Orange-colour, and 
more opaque than the reft 3 and the Top is bounded 
by an orange-colour'd Ring, (welling out fomething 
beyond 
