8 
has not been collected since it was described: Orthotrichum brachy- 
trichum Sch. 
ORTHOTRICHUM BRACHYTRICHUM, Schimp. Proc. Am. Acad. 14: 
140 (1879). 
It is always well to distrust a species which has only been col- 
lected once, and to seek for the nearest allied species for which it 
may have been mistaken. After seeing the type of O. drachy- 
trichum from Kew, and comparing it with O. odtusifolium, with 
which it had been confounded, I discovered that it belonged to 
the section with immersed stomata, between O. Schimperd and O. 
strangulatum, where it is placed in the Manual. It is so near the 
former that I am inclined to think they are the same species. The 
leaves agree in every way, not only in the specimens, but in the de- 
scriptions, and so do all the essential characters of the capsules, ex- 
cept that in the types of O. dvachytrichum is perhaps a trifle longer, 
with a more tapering neck. The calyptra, as the name implies, 
has a few short hairs. The ridges of the capsules are broad and 
conspicuous on the mature capsules, alternating with spaces equal 
to or narrower than the ridges. The cells which compose them 
are broad yellow, in 2—5 rows, alternating with 5—6 rows of nar- 
rower cells, and agree with the figures given by Limpricht of O. 
Schimpert. The stomata are small and quite closed. 
It may be that we shall conclude to call all the American 
specimens by Schimper’s name, but I have sent specimens to both 
Philibert and Venturi to ask for their opinion and a further com- 
parison with European Schimpert. 
O. FALLAX var. TRUNCATULUM, Aust. Bull. Torr. Club, 6: 344 (1879). 
Austin lays stress on the leaves being “ hyaline apiculate, the 
capsule cylindric and costate its whole length, abrupt at base with 
the cilia as long as the teeth.” We have examined his type speci- 
mens collected in Illinois by Hall at the base of old buildings and 
find many of the leaves ending in a single clear cell, as figured by 
Schimper in the Bryologia Europea t. 211. The capsules how- 
ever are slightly longer than in O. fad/ax, the largest 1. 5 mm. 
long with the lid, but the truncate base and short neck is quite © 
characteristic of that species as well as of these specimens, and the © 
seta immersed in and shorter than the ochrea which flares out and — 
