552 MK. W. MITTEN ON EUROPEAN AND NOETH-AMEEICAN 



and Turner B. tamarindifolivm. When Bridel enumerated these, 

 it is seen how species in themselves sufficiently well marked had 

 drifted into confusion. Wilson paid particular attention to the 

 British species, and examined the older herbaria ; but some of 

 the conclusions at which he arrived respecting them cannot be 

 maintained. 



Fissidens has been monographed by De la Pylaie, in Desvaux's 

 ' Journal de Botanique ' (1814), by Bruch and Schimper in the 

 ' Bryologia Europea,' and enumerated by Jager, wbo, finding he 

 had made great errors and omissions, went over the whole again, 

 making great additions in his " Grenera et Species Muscorum 

 systematice disposita seu Adumbratio Florae Muscorum totius 

 orbis terrarum," in the ' Verhandlungen der St. Grallischen|Natur- 

 wissenschaftlichen Gesellschaft,' 1870-1875. In this all the 

 species up to that time known to the author are enumerated ; 

 they comprise fifty species placed in Conomitrium, thirteen in Octo- 

 diceras, and two hundred and fifty in Fissidens, the species in this 

 genus being enumerated without order or system of any kind, 

 only that the smaller species come first and the larger towards 

 the end ; the species with entire, serrulate, margined, immar- 

 ginate, and erect, or cernuous fruit being mixed in a simple 

 inventory ; those species described in the ' Transactions of the 

 Linnean Society,' 1860, are omitted, as is all mention of Seemann's 

 ' Flora of Viti.' 



The genus, understood as comprehending Conomitrium and 

 Octodiceras, has been variously placed. Schwaegrichen, in Hedwig's 

 posthumous ' Species Muse. Frond.,' entirely on peristomial 

 grounds, places it between Trichostomum and Bicranum ; Bridel, 

 with a better appreciation of its characteristics, placed it at the 

 end of his arrangement in his " Classis V.Entophyllocarpi," which 

 contained also Phyllogonium and Brepanophyllum. In C. Midler's 

 1 Synopsis Muse. Frond.' the genus is placed in the first section 

 Bistichophylla of his subclass Acrocarpi of the Class III. Stego- 

 carpi ; this section includes aim Schistostegece,BrepanopkyUea,&nd- 

 Bistichice. Wilson placed the genus between his acrocarpous 

 and pleurocarpous genera ; Schimper between Leucobryacece and 

 Seligeriacece. Jager first placed his Fissidentacecs after Polytft- 

 chacece and Buxbaumiacece as Tribus xviii. ; but in the Sup- 

 plement to his work it is Tribus vii, ; and it occupies the position 

 assigned to it by Schimper. 

 Considering the number of species now known, it is remarkable 



