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S P L A C H NUM ampullaceum.
Purple Splachnum.
C R Y P T O G A M I A Mufti.
Gen. Ch a r . Capfule placed on the fummit o f a large
coloured flefhy receptacle. Veil deciduous.
Male flowers generally on a feparate plant.
Spe c . Ch a r . Receptacle fwelling, obconical. Leaves
ferrated, acute.
S y n . Splachnum ampullaceum. L im . Sp. PI. 1 5 7 2 .
Hudf. FI. An. 4 6 8 . With. Bot. A rr. V. 3. 78.
Relh. Cant. 3 96.
Bryum ereCtis gigartinis capitulis, foliis Serpylli pel-
lucidis acutis. Rail Syn. 9 3 .
B. ampullaceum, foliis Thymi pellucidis, collo ftric-
tiore. Dill. Mufc. 3 4 3 . t. 4 4 . ƒ. 3. (compared at
Oxford, J . E . Smith.)
G r ATHERED on Iver Heath near Uxbridge by Mr. Jacob
Rayer, Auguft 24 laft, though it commonly bears its capfules
in the fpring.
The roots are faid to be annual, and produce numerous
lhort upright branches, clothed with lanceolate leaves, various
in breadth, lharply pointed, ferrated, pale and pellucid. Some
branches are terminated by a ftellated male flower. Others
bear the capfule on a ftraight upright flower-ftalk, which
gradually rifes to the height of two inches, and is round,
fmooth, pellucid, of a bright red. This ftalk terminates in
an obovate or conical purplilh fucculent body, compared by
Dillenius to a vinegar cruet, on the blunt top of which ftands
a fmall cylindrical capfule, with eight teeth round its orifice,
which at length are reflexed. The veil or calyptra is very
minute and fugacious ; the lid of the capfule fmall and blunt.
The columella is lengthened out beyond the rim of the capfule,
appearing like a piftillum, which it may really be.
Linnaeus, too confident in Dillenius, who was a better ob-
ferver than phyfiologift, took the capfule of Mofies for their
anthera; but the celebrated Hedwig has now fet us right in
that particular.