2 4 o ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



however, may be reckoned complete, inasmuch as it has the 

 usual horizontal rhizome, with its bundles of red radicles, 

 continued upwards at right angles into the single stem 

 so characteristic of the genus, with several short obtuse 

 branches from its upper part, constituting a somewhat 

 fastigiate fascicle, almost tree-like. 



Climaciuni epigceum. The leaves of the upright stem 

 are nearly appressed, thinner and more translucent than 

 those on the branches, with narrower apices, but still 

 showing here and there the curious broadish apiculi ; stems 

 of the branches red, leaves thin, rather closely arranged, 

 imbricated in a dry state, spreading only a little when 

 moistened, very concave throughout, with two to four sulci 

 in the lower half, broadly cordate at base, with the alae 

 prolonged downwards in a semi-elliptical form, to a lower 

 level than the point of attachment of nerve to stem, 

 composed of broadly rhomboid cells, apart but close, with 

 thickish, opaque walls, .O3-.O4 by .OI4-.O2 mm., a little 

 narrower outwards ; between this wing and the nerve, three 

 to five short perpendicular rows of oblong cells also with 

 thick walls, the lower being red, .04 5 -.06 by.oi3-.oi8 mm. ; 

 apices of leaves blunt and rounded, almost exactly as in 

 Hypnum purum, with a broad, bluntish or rather narrowly 

 triangular acumen, about I mm. long, and half this in 

 breadth at its point of attachment to the apex of leaf, 

 composed of narrowly oval, detached cells, .oi6-.O24 by 

 .005 -.007 mm., margin of leaf entire, plane but slightly 

 incurved owing to the concavity of leaf, nerve at base, of a 

 vivid red colour, lat. there .075-.! mm., tapering rapidly, 

 getting fainter in colour upwards to a pale yellow, reaching, 

 in a slender form, almost to the base of the apiculus ; 

 upper cells of leaf long, narrow, very generally sharp- 

 pointed, .06 5 -.09 by .OO4-.OO5 mm., shorter and blunter in 

 upper fourth, broader near base. Leaves towards the blunt 

 round extremities of the branches rather narrower as well 

 as apices. 



This moss has evidently close affinities to Cl. americanuin, 

 and the question, which has often been pressed on my 

 attention, is rendered of more significance since this dis- 

 covery. Why should plants found on the higher altitudes 



