44i Transactions. — Botany. 



distinct, the capsule being smaller, and not so contracted at 

 the apophysis. I have given iigures of both species of the 

 same magnification. 



L. harriottii, sp. nov. Plate XXXVIII., fig. 12. 



Plants dioecious, annual, growing loosely in small patches 

 Jin. high, yellowish-green. Leaves loosely imbricating round 

 the stem, erecto-pateut, subfalcate or flexuous, linear-setaceous, 

 semi-convolute ; margins entire ; nerve disappearing near the 

 apex. Areola long and narrow, scarcely altered when dry; 

 acrocarpous. Perichcetial leaves small, setaceous, flexuous. 

 Fruitstalk slender, i in. -fin. long, flexuous, slightly curved 

 at the apex, pale-red. Capsule small, pendulous, shortly 

 pyriform, not constricted at the middle, mouth small. Peri- 

 stome double ; outer teeth 16, free to the base, linear-lanceo- 

 late ; inner united below to the middle ; upper half divided 

 into 16 teeth with intermediate cilia ; membranous, hyaline. 

 Operculum and calyptra not found. 



Hab. In damp places. West Coast. Collected by R. B. 

 Pine Hill, Dunedin ; W. Bell. 



Genus Bryum, Linn. 



This is the largest genus of all the New Zealand acrocar- 

 pous mosses, and is composed of perennial plants, having a 

 pendulous or inclined pyriform capsule ; a double peristome, 

 the outer one having 16 teeth, free to the base, the inner one 

 a membrane divided to the middle into 16 keeled segments 

 with or without intermediate cilia; calyptra cucullate. 



It is also the most difficult to comprehend, through the 

 close approximation of a large number of the species to each 

 other in the form and size of their leaves, which are small and 

 triangular in their outlines, and are only distinguished from 

 each other with difficulty by variation in their length or 

 breadth and other microscopic characters. The capsules, 

 although more differentiated than the leaves in a number of 

 them, closely approach others in form, thereby making the 

 genus a very difficult one, and to determine the species 

 without the aid of named specimens is almost impossible. 

 Sir J. Hooker appears to have realised this difficulty, for he 

 remarks in a note on the position of this genus, at page 437 of 

 the "Handbook of the New Zealand Flora," that many of 

 the New Zealand species are provisional only, and most of 

 them require to be re-examined with more and better 

 specimens. Their characters are often very obscure, and a 

 reference to the figures of the species given in the first and 

 second sections into which they have been divided in this 

 paper will make the above remarks evident. 



Since the publication of the Handbook several additions 



