330 Transactions. — Botany. 



Art. XXXVII. — Notes on the Neiu Zealand Musci. 

 By Kobert Brown. 



[Read before the Philosophical Institute of Canterbury, 27th February,. 



1901.] 



Plate XIII. 



Genus Conostomum. 



The genus Conostomum was created by Swartz to include the 

 European species C. borcale and the New Zealand C. australe, 

 which in the generic characters approach very closely those 

 of Bartramia, the principal difference between them being the 

 coherence of the teeth of the peristome at the apex in the 

 former, while in the latter they are free. Many modern 

 botanists place the species in Philonitis, a section of the genus 

 Bartramia. 



Mr. Wilson, in his " Bryologia Britannica," has kept 

 them distinct, and so has Sir J. D. Hooker in his " Hand- 

 book of the Flora of New Zealand," which is the principal 

 work there is on the bryology of New Zealand. I have 

 therefore followed in the same lines in keeping the genera 

 distinct, in order to facilitate reference to the above-named 

 works. 



This genus is a truly alpine one, the New Zealand species 

 belonging to it being seldom found growing below 2,000 ft., 

 and then only in cold, wet habitats. 



The leaves of all the species but one treated in this paper 

 are very distinctly arranged in five rows, as in C. boreale, 

 leaving a furrow between each of the rows, which gives them 

 a character so distinct that they can be at once distinguished 

 from species of Bartramia. 



I have seen no specimens of C. pusillum, but figures of 

 it are given in the " Flora Novae-Zealandiae," which show that 

 the leaves are very similar in their outline to the leaves of 

 the other species belonging to this genus, which vary from 

 each other principally either in their length or breadth. 

 This species will be easily determined by the margins of the 

 leaves being recurved and the double serration on them. 



C. gracile of this paper unfortunately had the peristomes 

 destroyed by insects, so that its true position could not be 

 ascertained. It is placed provisionally in this genus in order 

 that it might be recorded. Its habit appears to be that of a 

 Conostomum. 



C. minutum : Although neither the operculum nor the peri- 



