H E D 
HER 
dulged his ardour for botanical purfuits as much as his 
other avocations permitted. He was molt earned in his 
enquiries into the internal ftrutlure of vegetables; and 
in thefe refearches he made a wonderful progrefs. He 
had the good fortune to receive from Koehler, of Dref- 
den, an excellent compound microfcope, in the appli¬ 
cation of which, to the minuted parts, he became ex¬ 
tremely (kilfut. He alfo, at the age of forty, taught 
himfelf to draw and paint the objects which he difco- 
vered. In January, 1770, he had the fatisfadtion of fee¬ 
ing a capfule of the bryum pulvinatum burft and Hied 
its pollen, by which he ascertained the male organ of 
the mofs-tribe. It was already known, from his expe¬ 
riments, and thofe of others, that the little heads call¬ 
ed by Linnaeus anther a, were the feed-veflels of the 
modes. On thefe grounds he examined and defcribed 
the fructification of all the modes which fell in his way ; 
of which, in 1778, he publiflied an account in the Leip- 
lic Mifcellany of PhySics and Natural Hiftory. Having 
removed to Leipfic in 1781, he there publiflied his ca¬ 
pital work, Fundamentum Hijloria Naturalis Mufcorum Fron- 
dojcrum , 4to. Farsi. 1782; Pars II. 1783. He next ob¬ 
tained the prize offered by the Peterfburg academy, for 
the detection of the flowers of the cryptogamous plants, 
by a didertation entitled, Theoria Generation^ & Fruflijica- 
tionis Plantarum Cryptogamicarum Linnai, mere propriis Obfer- 
vationibus & Experimentis J'uperJlruEla, printed in the Peterf¬ 
burg Memoirs for 1784. His theory, however, was not 
received without oppofition; and a controverfy enfued 
with Gaertner, Necker, and others, in which Hedwig is 
thought fully to have eftablifhed his point with refpeCt 
to the modes, and mod of the algae. 
• His medical practice kept pace-with his literary repu¬ 
tation. In 1784 he was appointed phyfician to the town 
guards; two years afterwards he was nominated extra¬ 
ordinary profedor of medicine in the univerfity; and in 
1789 was made profedor of botany, with the fuperin- 
tendance of the phyfic garden. In this appropriate fitu- 
ation he continued to cultivate botanical knowledge with 
great ardour, and compofed many valuable works. Be- 
fideshis continued attention to the cryptogamous plants, 
of his Theory of the Generation and Fructification of 
which he publiflied a corrected and augmented edition 
in 1798; he diligently purfued his refeafehes into the 
firuCtureof plants, and rectified the falfe opinions which 
had prevailed upon the following points; the efficacy 
of the medulla or pith ; the pre-formation of the flowers ; 
the excrements of plants ; "the nature of trunks ; the co¬ 
tyledons of feeds; the living births of plants ; and hy¬ 
brid germination. He alfo afeertained the nature, the 
ItruCture, rife, and increafe, of the veflels of vegetables, 
and the genuine ufe of the leaves ; for particulars of all 
of which fee the article Botany, vol. iii. p. 237-253 ; 
and the correfpondent Engraving. In the midft of thefe 
occupations his fpirits received a great (bock from a 
nervous fever, under which he funk on February 7, 1799, 
in the fixty-ninth year of his age. Dr. Hedwig was a 
man of great modefty and candour, benevolent, friendly, 
and upright; little felicitous of wealth and honours, 
and void of all parade in teaching and writing. He at¬ 
tained his eminence folely by patient and laborious in- 
duftry. He is faid to have been endowed with a re¬ 
markably ftrong fight, which was of infinite affiftance to 
him in making his obl'ervations on the minute fructifica¬ 
tion of molfes, and other microfcopical refearches. His 
numerous writings are chiefly in the German language. 
A pofthumous. work entitled Species Mufcorum frondoforum 
4to. with many plates, was publilhed at Leipfic in 1801, 
by Frederic Schwaegrichen. He left two Ions ; one an 
eminent painter at Magdeburg ; another,.Romanus Adol¬ 
phus Hedwig, M. D. refiding at Leipfic, and already 
known by feveral botanical publications. 
HEDWIG'IA,/. [named from the above Dr. Hedwig.'] 
In botany, a genus of the clafs oClandria, order mono- 
gynia. The generic characters are—Calyx ; perianthitun 
299 
one-leafed, ctip-fhaped, four-toothed; teeth minute, 
ovate,(harp, upright. Corolla: monopetalous, tubulous 3 
tube the length of the calyx, narrower at top; border 
quadrifid ; the clefts ovate, fliarp, upright, converging. 
Stamina : filaments eight, broad, inferted into the bale 
of the corolla, incumbent on the germ ; antherae minute, 
oblong, (harp, converging above the fligma. Piftillum : 
germ conical, eight-ftreaked, fuperior; ftylenone; fligma 
blunt. Pericarpium : capfule tricoccous (compofed as 
it were of three ovate acuminate capfules), large, three- 
celled. Seeds: nuts folitary, ovate, acuminate, one 
fide convex and very fmooth, the other wrinkled and 
unequal; kernels the ffiape of the nuts.— EJfential Cka- 
raEler. Calyx four-toothed ; corolla four-cleft; ftyle 
none; capfule tricoccous; feed a nut. 
Hedwigia balfamifera, a folitary fpecies. It is a lofty 
tree, growing to the height of more than fixty feet, with 
a trunk four or five feet in circumference : outer bark 
grey and even; inner red, thick and gummy: wood 
(olid, and reddifti. Leaves oval, ending in a lengthened 
point at top, without any indentations, thin, ftiining, 
waved, yellowiffi green, five or fix inches lojig, and 
three inches wide, ranged in pairs along a midrib, ter¬ 
minated by an odd one. The flowers grow in a raceme 
at the extremities of the branchlets, and are white. The 
fruit is the fize of a fmall nut, divided into two or three 
parts, covered with a green coriaceous rind, and con¬ 
taining a white flefhy fweet pulp, having an aromatic 
fmell : each divifion has in it a flatted woody (hell, in- 
clofing a bitter oily kernel. Native of St. Domingo;, 
where the wood is ufed as timber for various purpofes. 
An aromatic oil is drawn from the kernels, which is 
much efteemed in difordersof the breaft. The red gum 
that iflues from the bark has a ftrong aromatic fmell, 
and is much ufed in the cure of wounds. It is a notion 
that the wild fwine firft difeovered this ufe of it, and 
hence it has the name of bois cochon, hog-wood. 
HEDYCAR'YA,/. [from the Greek fweet, and 
xapvw, a nut.] In botany, a.genus of the clafs dioecia, 
order icofandria, natural order of fcabridae, (urticae, 
fuff.) The generic characters are—Calyx : perianthium 
one-leafed, flat-wheel-fliaped, eight or ten cleft: clefts 
lanceolate, nearly equal. In the female permanent. 
Corolla: none. Male. Stamina: filaments none; an- 
therae very many (fifty),oblong, four-furrowed, bearded 
at the tip, diftributed along the whole bottom of the 
calyx. Female. Piftillum; germs numerous, flatted- 
globular, placed each on a cylindric pedicel in the 
middle of the calyx; ftyles none; ftigmas, papillae 
fcattered over the germs. Pericarpium : none. Seeds: 
nuts fix or ten, pedicelled, globular, fomewhat bony; 
kernels folitary, globular. Receptaculum : in the mid¬ 
dle of the calyx, woolly.— EJfential Char abler. Calyx, 
eight or ten cleft; corolla none. Male. Filaments: 
none ; antherae in the bottom of the calyx, four-fur¬ 
rowed,bearded at the tip. Female. Germs pedicelled; 
nuts pedicelled, one-feeded. 
Hedycarya dentata, the only fpecies known, is a fmooth 
ftirub. Leaves alternate, oblong, ferrate, on ftiort pe¬ 
tioles, very fmooth, veined ; the veins almoft tranfverfe; 
racemes axillary; calyxes hirfute; nuts very fweet. 
Native of New Zealand. 
FIEDYC'REA, /. [from the Greek fweet, and 
Jtp£«5, flefli; the pulp of the fruit being fweet.] In 
botany, a genus of the clafs pentandria, order monogynia. 
The generic characters are—Calyx : perianthium one- 
leafed, hemifpherical, five-toothed; teeth (harp, pa¬ 
tulous. Corolla: none. Stamina: filaments five, in¬ 
ferted into a ring, furrounding the calyx within, below 
the teeth, oppofite to and (horter than they ; antherae 
roundifti. Piftillum: germroundiffi, villole, fuperior ; 
ftyle longer than the calyx, briftle-ftiaped, villofe; 
fligma blunt. Pericarpium : drupe oval, foft, fibrous 
within, one-celled. Seed : nut ovate, covered with 
fibres, one-celled: the ibell hard.— EJfential CharaBer. 
1 Calyx: 
