99 
On the Fruit of Eustichium Norvegicum, Br. Eu. 
By Elizabeth G. Knight. 
The^ rare moss, Eustichium Norvegicum^ has long been known to 
bryologists, but, up to the present time, no description of its fruit 
has been published. It has been my good fortune to find the plant 
m fructification, and a description of the fruit, illustrated by figures 
showing the details of its structure, is here appended. 
The moss was found in great abundance on the Potsdam sand- 
stone in the dells of the Wisconsin River, near Kilbourn City, Wis., 
on July 8th of the present year, and, after careful search, seventeen 
fertile specimens were obtained. It grew on moist, vertical faces of 
rock forming large patches. 
Description of the Fruit. — Capsule terminal, pendent, pyriform, 
I ' long and about half as broad when moist, noticeable by its 
yellow color, supported on a curved pedicel which slightly exceeds 
the^ length of the capsule; teeth none in the specimens collected, 
their place being occupied by a thin, transparent membrane; colum- 
ella a straight rod persistently attached to the operculum; operculum 
long-rostrate, conic when moist, flattening in drying by the contrac- 
tion of the elastic annulus, leaving the oblique rostrum prominently 
projecting, itself parting from the expanding mouth of the capsule 
and carrying with it shreds of the ruptured membrane; calyptra cu- 
cuUiform, .75'^'"* in length, tipped with a long whip-like awn, which 
equals or exceeds in length the rest of the calyptra. 
The other characters agree with the description given in Sulli- 
vant's Mosses in Gray's Manual (4th ed., 1863, p. 629), as follows: 
"Stems frond-like, flat, mostly simple (about i' long and i" 
broad), rooting only at the bulb-like base ; leaves 2-ranked, compli- 
cate, closely imbricating, erect ; those on the middle of the stem 
elongated-oblong, obliquely truncate, shortly acuminate, increasing 
in size as they ascend, the perich^etial leaves attenuated into a long 
and linear, flexuous, pellucid, flat, equitant and slightly serrulate 
point, longer than the lamina; areolation above sub-rotund, below 
oblong, that of the point of the perichaetial leaves linear ; costa per- 
current, its upper part narrowly winged : dioecious ; flowers of both 
kinds terminal/' > ^ ' 
In the Memoirs of the American Academy (n. sen, p. 57. t. i.) Sulli- 
vant says: " The genus of our moss must remain uncertain until the 
ajscoyery of -its fruit, which we may now expect," etc. If further 
^?^^^*^^tion of more mature specimens proves the lack of teeth, then 
Jne South American Eustichia longirostris, Brid., should be transferred 
to another genus. For description of E. longirostris, see G. Mitten, 
J^^' ^^.^^- *^'^^M xii,, p. 603 and Brid. Bry. Univ. For descriptions 
^ Eustichium Norvegicum, see Br. Eu., fas. xHi.; Brid., Vol. ii., p. 
^74 ; and C. Muller, Syn. Muse. Frond, i., p. 42- 
Pi ^^^-ANATION OF THE FIGURES.— Fig. I. Calyptra magnified 50 diameters. 
3. The ^^^^^ capsule, with conical operculum, magnified 50 diameters. Fig. 
«Wid ml'^^'" n ^'^*^^' ^^^^ detached and contracted operculum. Fig. 4- Calyptra 
Auothe ^^^ ^^^" through a natural rupture in the wall of the capsule. Fig. 5. 
view of the same. Fig. 6. An entire plant magnified 5 diameters. 
