659 3

oonferanntly the mob abftrufe parts of botany, may

teeneeelsnleb be jullly efteemed, without any exag-
geration, One Ot the molt complete wotke extant of
dle kind.
Dr. Hill, in his Hillory of Plants, has difpoled
them into five genera, under the following names ;
a. Pima, comprehending the hairy tree.moffes ;
a. Platy/S., fiat-branched trce.moffes, the lungwort,
and others ; Cladonia, containing the orehel and
coralline-moffes ; 4. Pyxidimas the cup-moffes ; p.
Placadison, the crufbaceous net:fres.
The plants of this connive genus are very dd.
fcrtnt in their fonn, manner of growing, and gene-
ral appearance : on which account thofc authors,
who preferve them undcr the fame name, fare the
propriety and necellity of arranging them into dif-
ferent orders and fubdivillons, that the freies might
be diftinguifhed with greater facility. Upon the fame
principle Dr. Dillcnius and Dr. Hill have formed
them into liven) genera.
So far as the g Mat of fruftification are diflinguille-
able in thefe plants, they appear in different forms
upon different (pecks: on fume, in the form of tu-
bercles ;on others, in the form of little concave
dilhes, called liatelfr ; on others, of oblong flat
fiticlds or pelts. All there are conceived by Michell
and Linnzus to be receptacles of male flowers. The
female flowers and feeds are fufpeeted by the fame
authors to be difperfed in the form of farina or dull
upon the fame plants, and in thine inflances on fe-
pante ones. Dillenius has not dared to determine
any thing poLtively with regard to thc real parts of
fruElification in thefe lichens time will hereafter, it
is to be hoped, throw more light upon the fubjeft.
4P2 la

To learn about OCR and PDF Compre