Colenso. — Description of neiv Cryptogamic Plants, 226 



Order IV. MUSCI. 

 Genus 37. Mnium, Bruch and Schimp. 

 1. M. novcB-zealandice, sp. nov. 



Plant rather large, gregarious, prostrate and creeping ; fruit- 

 ing stem erect, f-inch high, stout, densely shaggy, with brown 

 rootlets, leaves rosulate at apex, with creeping barren leafy run- 

 ners at base, 2-3 inches long, proliferous at apex. Leaves large, 

 3-4^ lines long, 1-2 lines broad, thin, pale (not yellowish) green, 

 oblong and oblong-obovate, flat or very slightly undulate, very 

 obtuse (sometimes retuse), apiculate, broadly margined, margins 

 entire, slightly subsinuate, sometimes the apical portion is finely 

 and distantly denticulate (but scarcely visible under a lens); 

 nerve very stout, particularly at base, continuous but not ex- 

 current; cells rather small, broadly oblong, alike throughout, 

 obscure ; leaves on the runners regularly pinnate, the upper 

 half of each leaf free at the base from stem, alternate, with here 

 and there a smaller leaf between on the under and also on the 

 upper side of the branch. Fruit-stalk mostly single, sometimes 

 two together, rather stout, smooth, erect, 1-1J inches high, 

 slightly curved, reddish below, yellowish-green above, bulbous 

 at base. Capsule oblong, 1 line long, cernuous ; external 

 teeth dark-brown, obtuse, each having four dark vertical lines, 

 with their transverse bars in pairs and rather close ; internal 

 teeth pale, the transverse bars distant, and the ciliae between 

 (3-4) long, very slender, and finely knobbed at intervals ; oper- 

 culum the length of capsule, conical-subulate, obtuse, recurved. 

 Calyptra very long, smooth, narrow, conical-subulate, 3 lines 

 long ; tip filiform, obtuse. 



Hab. Low wet open spots in the interior, 1879-80, but 

 always barren ; wet shaded spots, sides of the Eiver Mangata- 

 whaiiti, Seventy-mile Bush, County of Waipawa, 1884 : W.C. 

 Glenross, County of Hawke's Bay, 1885 : Mr. D. P. Balfour. 



Obs. This species is near to M. rostratum, Schw., and also 

 to M. rhynchophortim, Hook., but, after much close examination 

 and comparison, I am satisfied it is specifically distinct. It 

 differs from M. rostratum in its larger size, in wanting the ex- 

 current nerve, and in the shape and size of its leaf and oper- 

 culum, but more particularly in the teeth of its peristome, which 

 differs very considerably from those of that species, as given by 

 Schwaegrichen (Suppl. I., tab. 79); the external teeth of this 

 species are of a very different colour, their transverse bars are 

 closer and in pairs, each tooth also possessing four dark vertical 

 lines ; while the internal teeth are without perforations, with 

 their bars more widely apart, and the intervening cilias more 

 slender and knobbed at intervals ; also, the vertical lines below 

 the inner teeth do not run straight downwards, neither are the 

 cells there regular, as shown by Schwaegrichen in his drawings, 

 15 



