The Genus Diphyscium 



The Leafy Diphyscium, Diphyscium foliosum, Mohr. 



Habit and habitat. Dark-green, widely tufted; growing on 

 clay soil and shady banks along roads, also on rocks. 



Name. From the Latin foliosus, leafy. 



Plant (gametophyte). Simple with short stems. 



Leaves. Strap-shaped, thick, or curled in various directions 

 when dry, vein (costa) present; margin roughened with minute 

 projections above and sometimes with a few distinct teeth, cells 

 small and containing leaf-green. 



Lid lifted to Spore-case 

 show teeth, withou lid 



Top of spore-case 

 with inner teeth. 



D. foliosum. 



Top of spore 

 case with outer 

 teeth. 



Single Perigonial 

 plant. leaf. 



Leaves at the base of the spore-case. Ovate lance-shaped, mem- 

 branous, and without leaf-green; vein excurrent, forming a 

 bristle point almost as long as the blade of the leaf. 



Habit of flowering. Male and female flowers on separate 

 plants, (dioicous). 



Veil. Acute, conical, covering the lid. 



Spore-case. Immersed in colourless 

 leaves; swollen on oneside, ovate, lance- 

 shaped, yellowish-green. 



Pedicel (seta). Very short. 



Lid (operculuni). Conical, acute. 



Teeth (peristome). Double, the outer short, triangular, grainy, 

 and with transverse bars, often perforated in the middle, pale- 

 yellow, purple at the apex; the inner membranaceous, and form- 

 ing a blunt cone of twisted folds. 



Spores. Small, mature in summer. 



Distribution. Europe, Asia and North America. 



359 



Male plant. Veil. 



D. foliosum. 



