INTRODUCTION. 
species, in a young state of the capsule, at which period I have sometimes seen it in those 
in which I have looked for it in vain when the capsule has been ripe. 
The substance of the spiral filaments is, as far as their extreme minuteness will allow Substance, 
me to judge, nearly the same as that of the capsule itself ; their color brownish or fulvous 
and opaque; they are narrowed at each end, and compressed: they are short in J.pusilla; 
very long in J. epiphylla. In all cases they have a strong elastic force ; becoming more 
closely twisted and contracting with heat and dryness, and expanding with moisture. On 
the bursting of a capsule, they are instantly, from their exposure to the dry air, put in 
action, and, by their elastic impulse, discharge the seeds with a sudden motion to a 
considerable distance ; whence they have merited the name given them by the Germans 
of seed-dispersers. 
SEEDS. 
The seeds themselves are, for the most part, spherical, numerous, minute, brown, Seeds, 
and opaque; smooth in the greater number of species; rough in J.pusilla: large, and 
comparatively few in number, in the capsules of J. minutissima, and of an oblong shape, 
and a green color. Hedwig has seen the seeds of J. epiphylla vegetate ; and his account 
will be found under my description of that species. 
B. Of the Gemma:. 
Besides the means of increase by seed, some of the Jungermanni®, like most other Gemma, 
cryptogamous plants, possess the property of propagating their kind by gemmae ; in the 
same way as many species of Allium, Polygonum viviparum , &c., among the pliamogamous 
plants. Of these I have treated as much as was in my power under the description of 
those species which I have found to be furnished with them, so that I have but few words 
to say upon the subject here. 
Hitherto 1 have found true gemma only upon a few species. In J. minutissima, J. ser- 
pyllifolia, J. hamatifolia, and J. calyptrifolia, they appear to be produced upon the stems. 
In J. complanata upon the margins of the leaves. In J.furcata upon the extremity of the 
frond ; and in J. Blasia within proper tubular receptacles. In all they precisely resemble 
in structure the leaves or the frond of the individuals which produce them. In the four- 
first, as well as in the last-mentioned species, they are spherical. In J. complanata and 
J.furcata more or less oblong. Those of J.furcata may without much difficulty be 
observed in their progress towards perfect fronds : and those of J. Blasia, even before their 
escape from the receptacles, are endowed with roots, and their developement into perfect 
plants has been detected by the acuteness of Schmidel and Hedwig. 
I lament that I have called by the same name bodies of a much more simple and less 
organized structure, which are found on the leaves of J. incisa, J. ventricosa, J. orcadensis, 
J nemorosa , &c., and on the ends of the branches in J. Sphagni, ( Suppl . tab. 2), J. Tricho - 
munis and J. bicuspidata, &c., in all of which they are collected into more or less compact 
spherical heads. Each is an ovate or angular, pellucid, greenish granule or vesicle. 
F 
