^ REVUE BRYOLOGIQUE Gi 



" Occasionally both stems and setae become greatly 

 elongated, a state which appears to be frequent in India 

 and Japan. " Sometimes, also, innovation takes place, 

 resulting in the apparently lateral position of the older 

 setae. On the other hand, however, quite small and simple 

 plants occur in India, identical in habit with the common 

 European form of P. aloides^ and in these small Indian 

 forms the grooving of the terminal cell occurs just as in 

 the larger forms. 



As we go farther East we find this character of the 

 grooved terminal cell becoming more marked. Figs, 17, 18 

 represent the lamellae of specimens of P. aloidcs from 

 China, and Figs. 19, 20 those of Japanese plants. In Japan, 

 however, we meet with a Polytrichum described by 

 Lindberg in 1868 (Notis. Siillsk. Faun. Fl. Fenn. Forh. 

 (Helsingfors), IX, p. 100) as a distinct species under the 

 name of P. inflexum. In Lindberg's diagnosis of this 

 species (which has not since been recorded elsewhere), the 

 lamellae are thus described, ^' cellula marginali in sectione 

 transversa magna laevissima triangulari supra retusa, 

 interdum indistinctissime medio impressa. " P. inp*x\mi 

 is very close to — if indeed it is distinct from — P. aloidcs^ 

 and from the last character mentioned above it apparently 

 sometimes shows thegrooving found in the Asiatic forms of 

 P. aloides. There are a few stems of P. inflexum (*' Japonia 

 (Textor)' ) in the Kew Herbarium, and in these the 

 terminal cell of the lamellae has the shape shown at 

 Fig. 21. 



P, nipponense Schpr. mss. in Hb. Kew ('^ Yokoska, 

 Nippon ") (Savatier (1878), and also P. Oldhami Schpr. 

 mss. Hb. Kew ('^Japonia, Nagasaka " (Oldham) are both 

 merely the Asiatic (Japanese) form of P. aloidcs. In the 

 latter specimens, the terminal cell of the lamellae 

 occasionally becomes subtriangular in outline, and so 

 tends to approach the shape of that of P. inflcxinn. 



P. carinatum Mitt. mss. in Herb. Kew (Japan (Oldham) 

 agrees with P. inflrxiim Lindb. 



On the whole it would appear that a form of P. aloides 

 is being evolved in the East, — a form which may, perhaps, 

 ultimately develop into a distinct species related to 

 P. aloides in much the same way at P. commune is to 

 P. formosum. 



(To be continued) Ernest S, Salmon. 



Chariton House, Kew, England. May 19, 1900. 



