manner in which this capsule bursts: but it may be inferred, from the use he assigns to the peristomium, that he supposes it to eject its contents by the upper extremity: for, if the bursting were lateral, the seeds would at once come into contact with the pollen: but though impregnation would in this way more certainly be accomplished, the motions of the ciliæ could no longer be considered as in any degree assisting it.
Desirous to examine an object as nearly similar as possible to that on which the hypothesis appears to be founded, I in the first place made a transverse section of the full-grown but green capsule of Funaria hygrometrica; and, I confess, was both surprised and disappointed to find it, under the microscope, exactly resembling M. Beauvois' figure [I8]. But little reflection, however, was necessary to show that these scattered granules might either have been forced into the pulpy central substance, by the pressure necessarily applied to the stratum of pollen in making the section, or, what is more probable, been carried over its surface by the cutting instrument, which had previously passed through this stratum. Accordingly, by repeated immersion in water, and more readily still by the careful application of a small hair-pencil, the greater part of the granules was removed. [315 A transverse section at an earlier stage of the capsule, before the falhng of the calyptra, exhibited, as I expected, fewer granules on the substance of the columella, and which were removable in like manner. Lastly, by a longitudinal section, in which, if well performed, the scalpel could not be supposed to carry any part of the pollen over the surface of the columella, I obtained a distinct view of this part, perfectly free from these supposed seeds, and evidently consisting of large cells filled with an uniform pulpy substance; a continuation of which occupied the cavity of the operculum.
From these observations, even added to those of Schmidel and Hedwig, though they seem conclusive against the hypothesis of M. Beauvois, I by no means pretend to reason strictly respecting the whole order: on the contrary, from the conversations I have had with my ingenious and accurate
