7. Splachnum, anthera seated on a large deeply coloured apo physis; calyptra caducous ; stellated female flowers on dif ferent individuals.
S. Polytrichum, anthera operculate, seated on a very small apo physis ; calyptra villose ; female stellated floWers on differ ent individuals.
9. Mnium,anthera operculate ; calyptra smooth ; female flower, a naked, pulverulent, remote capitulurn.
10. Bryum, anthera operculate ; calyptra smooth, filament (fruit stalk) arising from a terminal bulb.
11. Hypnum, anthera operculate ; calyptra smooth, filament la teral, arising from a perichaitium.
Of this arrangement the first genus, Lycopodium, is now excluded from among mosses. Schreber, consider ing it to have some analogy in the opening of the cap sules to Osmunda, placed it among ferns ; and it is now generally consideicd as the type of a new cryptogamic order ; Stachyoptcrides of 1Villdenow ; Lxcopodinem of others,—a more circumscribed, and better constituted order. The original Porclla was transmitted from Ame rica by the venerable practical botanist, John Bartram Pennsylvania, to Dillenius. Linnxus never saw the plant, but characterised the genus from Dillenius's figure and descriptions. It remained a puzzle for seve ral years. Hedwig early considered the genus as alto gether doubtful. (Sec Fund. Hist. Nat—Masc. Frond. vol. ii. p. 68, printed in 1782.) And in the 2r1 edit. of his Theoria Gencrationis et Fructi,ficationis Plantarum Cryfitogamicarum publishici in 1798, he states, in a note, that "specimens of this plant, (Porella pinnata,) which he had lately received from the Rev. Mr. Muh lenherg, though destitute of fruit, show evidently that it belongs to the family or the Jungeimannim ;" and Mr. Dickson having received in the package of a parcel of plants from America, specimens of a plant nearly in the condition of that figured by Dillenius; having ascertain ed it to belong to the same species by comparison with Dillenius's original specimen ; and finding it to be a 11CW species of Jintgermannia, described and figured it in vol. iii. of the Linnxan Transactions,published in 1797, under the name of Jungerrnannia porella. The calyx,
or thc calyptra of the plant, had been taken for the fruit ; and the pores were the work of insects. The different comparttnents in the supposed capsule were a mere mis take of Linnxtis, not being mentioned by Dillenius It is remarkable, that Linnxus uniformly terms the capsule an anthcra, ancl, of course, thc male fl mers female. This mistake also was that of Dillenius, who, in his work, very inconsistently called that capsule which he believed to be the anther. Lintiveus' notions were originally right on this subject ; but yietcling to what he considered to be the better judgment of Dillenius in re gard to mosses, and reforming his language,—the whole glare of the mistake fell upon himself.
It is unnecessary to make farther remarks on this ar rangement. Bating the mistakes in the generic charac ters, as, for instance, the denial (after Dillenius) of a calyptra to Sphagnum ; his own mistake in ascribing a toothed fringe to Phascurn ; his very singular and alto gether false character of Buxbaumia,—it might be not very inconvenient, while only a very few mosses were known. It may appear at first remarkable, that Linitxus has detected none of Dillenius' mistakes, but has copied them all ; but when we recollect that Linnxus boasts, in sonic of thc Prefaces to the Genera Plantorum, that he scarcely ever used even a pocket glass, we shall cease to wonder at this circumstance. As the work of Dille nius contained, as we have scen, a great many plants that are by no means mosses, the arrangement of Lin nxus may be regarded as the commencement of Systema tic Aluscolog3 •-•-•A very rude one, certainly, as most first attempts are ; and one, the conception or execution of w Melt, after the work of Dillenius, could involve scarce any difficulty; yet there can be no question that it was useful in the infancy of the science, by calling the attention or botanists to the character and distribution of this family.
Hedwig's L'ystem of Foliose Musci.