]93 The SEVEN VEGETABLE FAMILIES. 
Tho’ it originally riles from a continued Coat of the Lme matter at the 
bottom ot the Ditch, its bignels gives the water lb much power upon it, 
when moved by the Vv'ind c>r Tide, that it is foon torn olT, and floats 
Joofe. In this ftate it lives as perfectly as while there was a communica- 
tion between it and the plain Coat at the bottom; and floats alout all 
Summer. 
CHAP. XLIV. 
Of the S w A n’s Neck B r y u m. 
I N this inflance of the third natural Family of Plants, I have been ob- 
liged to have recourfe to a new Charader of Diftindion ; flnce thole 
formerly eflablifl'jcd are, if not erroneous, at leafl equivocal. Linnaeus 
fuppofes the heads we lee on this, and the like MolVcs, to be Antherac, 
and the powder they contain a true Farina ; and that the naked Seeds are 
lodged on other parts of the Plants, On this foundation he eflablifhes the 
Charadcr of the Mosses to be an Anthera without a Filament, and re- 
mote from the Female Flower. To me it had appeared, long before, that 
the Head in thefe Mosses is truly and properly a Seed-Veflel ; and its Co- 
rona, a part little underflood, or even regarded by others, I perfuaded my- 
felf, from various examinations, contained a true Farina. 
This fyflem I laid before the Royal Society about twelve years ago j 
and they w'ere pleafed to do me the honour of printing it in their Tranf- 
adtions. Since that time one of the Linnaean School has endeavoured to 
revive the fyflem of hismafler; and w’hat he has done on the fubjedf, 
appeared among the Amaenitates Exoticac. The inflance I felctfled in that 
paper of the Tranfadlions, I think, was a Hypnum, one of the common 
Mosses w'hich bear heads j and that by which I am about to fupport the 
fame opinion here, is a Bryum, one of a kind yet more common. 
The Linnasan fyflem is fupported by a Plant of a very Angular kind, 
unlike the refl in its Frudlifications, and perhaps, indeed, not propserly a 
Moss. The fubjedl is yet undetermined : the Reader will do me the juf- 
tice to believe nothing could induce me to depart from the opinions of fo 
refpcdlable an Author, but what appeared to me the certain evidences of 
Nature. Thefe I am about to lay before him ; and till this matter fliall 
be decided, as I could not adopt the Linnrean Charadlers of this Family 
which appear to rne erroneous j neither have 1 ventured to deduce a new 
one 
