OF THE GENUS SYMBLEPHARIS. 487 
with Montagne’s special peristome characters, so as to admit 
species (like ©. Reinwardti, Mitt., Pl. 26. fig. 34) with a peri- 
stome of sixteen equidistant recurved teeth, there are vegetative 
characters left of sufficient value for keeping up the genus. 
This appears to have been the later opinion of Mitten, as in 
his work on the South-American mosses (2), he revived the genus 
Symblepharis, but without including the original peristome 
characters, and it is this emended generic description of Mitten's 
that must be accepted. 
We have, then, a genus of a few species of arboreal mosses 
of a distinet habit, which closely resemble one another in the 
shape and areolation of the leaves, strongly crisped when dry, 
differing in these points from Leptotrichum, Dicranella, and 
Angstremia, and from Holomitrium in the absence of distinct 
alar cells. 
S. HELICOPHYLLA, Mont. in Ann. Sci. Nat. sér. II. viii. p. 253 
(1837). | | 
Montagne (Joc. cit.) gives a full and excellent description of 
his species. The leaves are described as apicem versus margine 
dentata," but, although this is the case with most leaves, excep- 
tions may often be found. In the authentie specimens (ex herb. 
Montagne) at Kew, for instance, some leaves have a quite entire 
margin. 
In C. Müller, Syn. i. p. 461, the characters “ nervo um exeur- 
rente, apice dorso scabro” are added to Montagne's specifie 
description. "This roughness of the nerve is very variable, and 
seems to be correlated with the amount of serration of the 
margin ; as the margin tends to become less serrate tne roughness 
of the nerve is reduced to a few scattered points, until with an 
entire margin a quite smooth nerve is found. I do not find the 
nerve excurrent, but ceasing in the apex. e 
In 1828 Hooker published, in Wall. Cat. no. 7571, the namo 
(without description) of Didymodon vaginatum for a moss cor 
lected by Wallich in Nepal; in 1837 the same author (4) gure 
the moss, and in 1840 (5) published the specific description, s 
In 1857 Wilson (6) gave the MS. name Symblepharis ener 
to Hooker’s Didymodon vaginatum, and separated A form i 
"leaves longer, wider at base, less erisped when dry, às ^J 
blepharis dilatata, Wils. MS. 
