The seven VEGETABLE FAMILIES. 201 
the whole Head : it is gathered into a kind of Neck at the fummit of the 
Stalk, and is continued beyond the extremity of the Head, in form of a 
beak, or long flender cylinder, is pierced at the top, and there rifes out of 
the aperture a fine crimfon body, oblong, and thickened at the end. Plate 
XV] I. Fig. j,aaa. 
This is the ftate of the Head when the Moss is in full flower. In a 
younger Plant it is flender, and appears longer, and the Calyptra has its 
hard brown Ring at the point of the Beak, and is open there ; but there 
is nothing of the purple Filament. In the Seeding ftate, the Head be- 
comes yet more fwelled, and the Calyptra being now not large enough 
to cover it, flips by degrees from the lower parr, till at length it falls off. 
In this latter ftate there is feen a faded remain of the Filament at the top 
of the Hood, and nothing more. 
Tho’ the objedl be minute, it may with care be feparately examined. 
If the Skin forming the Hood be flit up, and drawn off entire, we fee 
the naked Head, Fig. bb. The Skin thus taken off is of the fame re- 
ticular conftitution with the Leaves j and it comes away entire with the cy- 
lindric Beak and purple Plume. 
The Head remains alfo entire, and is pear-fhaped; fmall at the infer- 
tion, large at the other end, and is there terminated by a kind of Umbo, 
or low conic Button, Fig. i. c. All this is perfecftly green. 
On cutting the head longitudinally in half, fee Fig. 2, its ftrudure Is 
found to be this. The Stalk, at its fummit, fwells into a fpungy thick 
lump. Fig. 2, a; and from the fummit of this part, 'which is folid, it ex- 
pands upwards, into that pear-like form we fee, b by which is hollow : 
the Shell, c c, is of confiderable thicknefs ; but the cavity, d d, is equal 
to many times the meafure of the Shell. From the center of the Flefliy 
lump, a, whofe furface has fwelled into this fhell, rifes a Seed- Velfel, e e. 
This is like a green cup, or drinking-glafs, with a cover. The part which 
rifes immediately from the folid mafs, is a kind of Pedicle, ff. This 
expands into the body of the Seed-Veflfel, e; and the Cover is radiated. 
gg- 
It is eafy to fee this Seed-Veffel Is of great importance in the nature 
and (Economy of the Plant. It rifes in the center of the hollow Head, 
but does not nearly fill that cavity. There is a large fpace every way round 
it ; and it is kept in its place, and fed, by numerous thick Velfels, h h h, 
which take their origin from the reticulated fubftance of the Shell, and 
are inferred into the Sced-Velfel. The Seed-VeflTel and Corona, feparated 
from the Head, are fhewn at Fig. 3. 
VoL. I. D d 
Thk 
