( J . Blasia.J 
BRITISH JUNGERMANNEE. 
tufts at the extremity of the frond. The author, however, makes it a Mnium, “ Mnium Liclienis 
fade," from the supposition that the capitula, at the extremity of the tubular receptacle, had their 
origin there; whereas it is only in a certain state of the plant that these gemmiferous receptacles 
put on the appearance of the granular heads of a Mnium. Nor is the description, partly made by 
Dillenius himself, and partly by Mr. William Harrison, who first found the plant in England, near 
Manchester, as far as it goes, at all less worthy of praise than the figure. 
Linnteus described our plant under the name of Blasia pusillti, in his Flora Suedca, it having 
been found in ditches near Fahlun ; and Oeder has figured it in the Flora Danica ; but neither of 
these authors have entered into any satisfactory description of it. The former seems to consider 
the gemmae, within the tubular receptacles, as seeds; since he says, "Semina matura e suo eyatho 
fere cylindrico defluunt, tam parva ut eorum figura nudis oculis distingui nequeat;” yet, in the 
Systema Nalura, his character of the genus is, 
Masc.? Cal. cylindricus granis repletus. 
Fem.? Cal. nudus. Fructu subrotundo, foliis immerso, polyspermo. 
So that Sir James Smith is not correct, when he says that the black sessile warts, scattered over the 
frond, are universally allowed to be male flowers. He has equally overlooked the passage in Micheli, 
" Fructus sunt capsulae secus foliorum margines.” 
It is to the admirable Dissertation of Schmidel, above quoted, that we must look for a 
complete description of this curious plant, from its earliest stage of growth, to its arrival at 
maturity, together with its mode of increase by gemmae; for heretofore no one has ever discovered 
the anthers any more than the capsules. Besides saying all that can be said concerning the two 
different kinds of gemmae, the author, in the thirteenth section, describes what he considers a third 
organ of propagation peculiar to this plant; but this, from all I can understand of the description, 
appears to be nothing more than a repetition of the mode of increase by the gemmte, which have 
fallen from the tubular receptacles, and are dispersed alike upon individuals, furnished with 
receptacles themselves, and upon such as have them not. Nor do the figures he has given of these 
parts induce me to think otherwise upon the point ; although I must confess, that, with regard to 
most of the magnified figures on the plate, they do not seem to me to deserve that praise which 
has been so universally bestowed upon them, and which those of the natural size doubtless merit. 
At the conclusion of his elaborate history, Schmidel sums up his account of the genus in 
these words: "Blasia est Algje genus pro flore masculino gerens Anlheras solitaries, per frondis 
substantiam sparsas, sessiles, subglobulosas : pro femineo fere Calycem monophylltim, inverse ovatum 
(extrorsum) tubulatum, tubo subcylindraceo truncato ; absque Corolla ; et ex fundo Calicis Semina 
nuda, libera, plurima, subrotunda, compressiuscula exeludens.” 
Hedwig comes next to be considered; who, having, as may be expected, added little that is 
new to what has been observed by the last-mentioned author, assures us, that what he has offered to 
the reader is done chiefly with a view to confirm and illustrate the discoveries of the incomparable 
Schmidel. He therefore, likewise, looks upon the marginal gemirne as anthers, and the receptacular 
ones as seeds, saying of the former, what I have not myself been able to verify, that the folliculus 
of the anther " extrinsecus fibrillosus * est, evidenti judicio communicationis cum plantulie vasculis.” 
* Let me add, however, in confirmation of Hedwig’s assertion, a communication made to me by Mr. Lyell. "In 
two specimens, these tubercles are rough and unpolished, as if they had burst, and when I threw a ray of sun-shine 
on them, seemed covered (not thickly) with very short, white filaments.” Lett. Dec. 1812. 
