OF WESTERX PEXXSYLVAXIA 329 



about 5-8 mm. long; calyptra more or less persistent, cucullate, 

 reaching to a little below the mouth of the urn ; capsule 

 castaneous, about 1-1.3 mm. long, oblong to oblong-cylindric, 

 about 2-2.5:1, erect and symmetric or nearly so, thin-walled 

 but with collenchymatous exothecial cells, slightly constricted 

 below the reddish rim when dry and empty ; annulus none ; lid 

 obliquely subulate-rostrate from a conical base, about as long- 

 as the urn ; peristome-teeth with an unusually distinct and 

 heavy divisural, cilia single and usually about half as long 

 as the usually entire segments, basal membrane reaching to 

 about one-third the height of the inner peristome; spores ma- 

 ture in late summer to fall. 



On base of trees : in moist woods from southern Xew 

 England to Ohio and southwards to the Gulf States. Xot yet 

 found in our region. 



Family XXXIII. BRACHYTHECIACEAE. 



Autoicous or dioicous ; paraphyses filiform ; anthericlial 

 clusters gemmiform ; archegonial clusters on very short, root- 

 ing branches: slender to robust: stem with central strand, 

 creeping to ascending, or rarely erect, often interruptedly 

 stoloniferous, fasciculately radiculose. mostly irregularly 

 pinnate ; branches mostly acute, often rlagelliform and rooting 

 at the ends : leaves unistratose, pluriseriate, erect-spreading 

 or appressed, rarely homomallous, dimorphic in the stolonifer- 

 ous species ; cordate-oblong to lance-ovate or lanceolate, acumi- 

 nate or rarely obtuse; costa mostly incomplete; median leaf- 

 cells prosenchymatous, elongate-rhomboid to linear-vermicular, 

 smooth or rarely papillose towards the upper end of the cell, 

 the basal cells lax and often porose, the alar usually differ- 

 entiated, being quadrate, green or hyaline, never inflated: seta 

 elongate, often rough ; capsule cernuous to horizontal, mostly 

 short, ovate or oblong and dorsally gibbous, when dry and 

 empty more or less arcuate, rarely erect and symmetric, oval 

 to oblong-cylindric, never pendent, smooth; collum faint; 

 exothecial cells collenchymatous; peristome hypnoid ; teeth 

 lance-subulate, mostly strongly hygroscopic, basally confluent, 

 yellow or orange to red-brown, with a zigzag divisural, dorsal- 

 ly cross-striate, lamellae numerous and well-developed ; inner 

 peristome mostly free, with a high basal membrane, carinate 

 segments which are lance-subulate, cilia mostly complete, 

 rarely none or rudimentary: lid conic, obtuse to acute, often 

 long-rostrate ; calyptra cucullate, early deciduous, mostly 

 glabrous. 



A large and cosmopolitan family on various substrata, 

 containing about 20 genera with 460 species. 



