FUNAEIACEAE. 



441 



Family 6. FUNARIACEAE C. Mueller. 

 FUNARIA FAMILY. 



Plants usually annual or ephemeral, seldom biennial ; sometimes 

 minute. Stems short, erect and seldom branched; leaves small and narrow 

 or large and broad, margins entire or toothed; vein present or rarely 

 absent. Pedicel sometimes short and immersed or long and exserted; 

 capsule erect or inclined, symmetric or unsymmetric, ovoid or pyriform ; 

 annulus often large and conspicuous or undeveloped ; ealyptra cucullate, 

 often inflated and oblique, rarely lobed or papillose; peristome absent, 

 rudimentary or double, teeth straight or oblique. A small family of wide 

 distribution, including about 12 genera with some 244 species. 



1. FUNARIA Schreb. 



Plants usually scattered, rarely crowded ; steins short, simple ; leaves 

 usually crowded at the summit, usually broadest above the base, entire or 

 serrate; vein ending below the apex or percurrent or excurrent; pedicel ex- 

 serted, elongated; capsules erect or nodding, often pear-shaped; lid flat or 

 apiculate ; ealyptra much inflated at base, beaked ; peristome single, double 

 or rarely lacking. [Latin, in reference to the twisted pedicels.] A large 

 genus of widely distributed cosmopolitan species. Type species: Mnium hy- 

 grometricum L. 



Mouth of the capsule oblique ; leaves serrate. 

 Mouth of the capsule small ; leaves nearly entire. 



1. F . hygrometrica. 



2. F. ftavicans. 



I. Funaria hygrometrica (L.) Sibth. CORD 

 Moss. (Fig. 484.) Plants up to IV high, bright 

 yellowish-green turning brown ; stems short, 

 simple ; leaves few, erect, appressed around the 

 base of the pedicel, broad and concave, acute or 

 acuminate ; the vein ending in the apex, margins 

 entire or faintly toothed; cells clear, smooth, ob- 

 long below, shorter and hexagonal above. Pedicel 

 pale, twisted, variable in length; capsule horizon- 

 tal or nodding, ribbed when dry ; mouth oblique ; 

 lid bordered with a red rim ; annulus large falling 

 with the lid; peristome double, oblique, the teeth 

 with apical appendages; ealyptra large, inflated 

 at base; spores rough, ripening early in spring. 

 [Mnium liygrometricum L.] 



On burnt ground and on rocks, not frequent. 

 Widely distributed in temperate and tropical regions. 



