203 
what inflated below, contracted and lax above, crenulate at mouth, 
3-5 cells thick at juncture with perigynium-tube, 2 cells thick at 
mouth ; calyptra fleshy, upper third or fourth free at maturity, 3— 
6 cells in thickness; archegonia several, the unfertilized raised on 
the base of the free portion of calyptra. 
Capsule long-cylindrical; valves very slender, 3.3-6 mm.X.13- 
.17 mm., widely spreading when dry, attached spiro-radially to a 
basal disc composed of large hyaline cells, flexuous, contorted, or 
spiral, on moistening,—always with a spiral twist at the apex ; foot 
of sporogonium forming a more or less goblet-shaped “ involu- 
cellum ”; seta 114-2 cm. long; elaters bi-spiral, very rarely tri- 
Spiral, acute or sub-obtuse, 210-420 X 12-15 »; spores about 12 yz, 
minutely papillate. 
Male plants more slender; antheridia (1-6) in the axils of 
smaller saccate leaves, forming spikes of 3-6 pairs of leaves de- 
creasing in size upwards, appressed, apices patent or recurved, 
or, in uppermost pair, erect; antheridia ellipsoidal or pyriform, 
-I5 X .24 mm., on pedicels 4 as long; slender stems (male?) oc- 
casionally gemmiferous at apex, gemmae unicellular, 10-24» in 
‘diameter.. 
Collected by the author on clay banks near Eureka, Humboldt 
Co., California, June, 1896; also by Prof. John Macoun (Herb. 
Underwood), on earth ina brook, Burrard Inlet, British Columbia, 
April 6, 1889, and on rocks, British Columbia, April 29, 1889. 
The leaves of the British Columbia plants stand with their mar- 
gins more often erect than in the California specimens, upon which 
our description and figures have been based. In the sterile con- 
dition, Gyrothyra somewhat resembles the larger forms of ardia 
scalaris—also collected by Macoun on Vancouver Island (Can. 
Hep. 80)—but can readily be distinguished by the margined, 
lingulate, more translucent leaves and by the bifid underleaves. 
The involucral leaves, though more or less apparently paired, 
are in a strict sense alternate like the cauline, and a single unpaired 
leaf is sometimes found to occur inside the pair we have dee 
scribed as the uppermost. 
It should be remarked that but few capsules of the plant have 
been seen and that these were already open or so young as to be 
‘still enclosed within the calyptra, so the actual dehiscence has not 
been observed, but the extremely long valves, which on being 
soaked out take easily a position strongly suggestive of the p ari 'S . 
of an apple, the spiro-radial attachment to the basal disc, ee 
never failing spiral twist of the ve-apex, and the spiral Hoes: | 
