408 
probable, therefore, that these supposed anthers are mere gemmse, produced 
by the superabundance of the juices, and hence surrounded by succident fila- 
ments/ ” 
It is not necessary to adopt the exact conclusion at which the learned bo- 
tanist, whose opinions are thus quoted, arrived, to decide that these axillary 
bodies are not stamens. He has not expressed himself in regard to their na- 
ture very clearly, or perhaps he has been mistranslated ; but this is of little 
consequence compared with the ascertained fact, that, be they what they may, 
they are not anthers. Fries also in his Planted homonemecd, 31. expresses him- 
self thus, — Musci sunt esexuales et in dicta organa masculina meras esse 
gemmas vix dubium videatur. Nevertheless, in the face of this evidence, 
Adolphe Brongniart retains a belief in the sexuality of Mosses, and in the male 
functions of the axillary bodies ; and he says, with justice, that it appears from 
Brown’s mode of describing Mosses, that he entertains a similar opinion. It 
is to be hoped that these distinguished botanists will some day favour us with 
a statement of the evidence upon which their decision has been taken ; for it 
is to be presumed that something beyond the conjectures advanced in the ar- 
ticle Mousses in the Dictionnaire Classique, weighs down the positive testimony 
of those who have seen the germination of the powder in the axillary bodies. 
Whether or not they can be called gemmae, \s^l depend upon the sense in 
which that term is employed. According to Unger {Ann. des Sc. n. s. 2. 
188.), the supposed anthers of Sphagnum are filled with minute animalcules of 
the genus Spirillum or Vibrio. 
With regard to the theca there is now no difference of opinion, either as 
to its containing sporules, or as to the general nature of its organisation. But 
I am not aware that any one has ever attempted to explain the analogy of its 
structure until I ventured to introduce the subject very briefly into my Out- 
line of the First Principles of Botany. That perfect unity of design, which is 
visible in all parts of the vegetable creation, and the constant adherence to the 
construction of every organ of plants, except the stem, out of modified leaves, 
seemed to be deviated from in the Cryptogamic class generally, and in Mosses 
in particular. An uninitiated person, reading the definition of a genus of Mosses, 
might suppose that it was in that tribe that the approach to the animal crea- 
tion, of which so much has been said, takes place. Unacquainted with the 
exact meaning of the Latin words employed by Bryologists, he might under- 
stand by the peristomium a jaw, by the calyptra a nightcap, and by the struma 
a kind of goitre ; and when he saw that teeth belonged to this jaw, he would 
naturally conclude that it was really a vegeto- animal of which he was reading. 
Struck with the evident absurdity of giving such names to parts of plants, 
without at the same time explaining their real nature, I ventured to call the 
attention of naturalists to the subject by the following paragraph in the little 
book above referred to. 
“ 539. The calyptra may be understood to be a convolute leaf; the oper- 
culum another ; the peristomium one or more whorls of minute flat leaves ; 
and the theca itself to be the excavated distended apex of the stalk, the cellu- 
lar substance of which separates in the form of sporules.” 
It is now time to shew upon what evidence and reasoning this hypothesis 
may be sustained. Every one agrees in describing the calyptra as a mem- 
brane arising from between the leaves and the base of the young theca, and 
as enveloping the latter, but having no organic connexion with it : when the 
stalk of the theca lengthens, no corresponding extension of the parts of the 
calyptra takes place ; so that it must be either ruptured at its apex (as in 
Jungermannia), or at the base ; and in the latter case it would necessarily be 
carried up upon the tip of the theca, which it originally enveloped. Now, 
what can be more reasonable than that such an organ, situated as I have de- 
