INTRODUCTION. 
Capsule. 
Texture. 
Structure 
Spiral 
Filaments. 
not unfrequently happens that an unevenly torn portion of the calyptra is carried up with 
the capsule, as is the case in the genus Sphagnum among the Mosses. 
CAPSULE. 
If a young capsule, before it has burst the calyptra, be examined, it will be found to be 
of an ovate figure, exhibiting no appearance of sutures. Within is seen a pulpy substance, 
consisting of a cellular tissue, filled with a pellucid liquor, and numerous granules, of a 
dark or olive- green color, varying in size; and the whole traversed by twisted brown lines, 
formed by the spiral filaments. 
When the capsule is protruded beyond the calyptra, the external part of it becomes 
hardened and the color generally deeper, brown, and glossy ; the sutures of the valves, 
too, are visible. The cellular substance, and the liquor within, are then absorbed, and 
nothing is seen but the granules become seeds, and the spiral filaments traversing them. 
The texture of the capsule is corneous, in the greater number of species ; almost 
membranaceous and pale brown in J. platyphylla , ./. Mackaii, J. pusilla, and J. epiphylla; 
quite membranaceous, white, and transparent in J. serpyllifolia, J. hamatifolia, J. calyptri- 
fo/ia, and J. minutissima. In the four last-mentioned species, the capsule opens into 
four valves or segments, which do not reach more than half way down the capsule ; in 
J. pusilla it bursts irregularly into valves of various sizes; but in all the rest into four equal 
valves, extending to the very base. Sometimes as in J. Lyellii, J. Hookeri, J.juniperina , 
and, probably, some others, five valves are seen; and sometimes only three: but this may 
arise from accidental causes. In all those which are divided down to the base, the valves 
become quite expanded : in those species whose filaments are attached to the apices of the 
valves, they are sometimes prevented from doing so by the entanglement of these filaments. 
The structure of the ripe valves of the capsule has something remarkable about it ; 
yet nothing, I think, but what might arise from a cellular formation, and the cellules 
becoming hardened. They appear to be striated longitudinally, with stria; placed at 
tolerably regular distances, and connected by more or less closely placed, transverse 
ones. These lines may be the divisions of the cellules. Externally they form grooves or 
furrows on the surface of the capsule. Such, at least, is the case in the greater number 
of species. In J. minutissima, and the curious little family to which it belongs, the capsule 
is irregularly reticulated, like the anthers. 
The spiral filaments that are found in the capsules of this genus, and some of the 
neighboring ones, are deserving of minute attention. How they are attached in many 
instances, I am wholly at a loss to discover ; for, in general, after the bursting of the 
capsule they lie quite loose among the seeds. In J.furcata, J. epiphylla, and J. Hookeri, 
they are formed of a simple helix, and remain, after the discharge of the seeds, attached 
to the extremity of the valves of the capsule. In J. serpyllifolia, and its congeners, the 
point of attachment is the same ; but the helix is double and enveloped by a thin, pellucid, 
tubular membrane. A similar membrane envelops the long filaments of J. epiphylla, which 
are attached, after the dispersion of the seeds, to the central base of the capsule, where 
they form a beautiful tuft or pencil. It is possible that this membrane may exist in all the 
