Jennings: Manual of Mosses — 21. Tetraphidaceae 157 



ment of rhe sporogonia, finally covering the stem and vaginule with a thick 

 tomentum; leaf-cells lax, long-hexagonal; perichaetial and upper leaves soon 

 disappearing: seta 5-20 mm long, thick, red-brown, warty, the central strand 

 being surrounded by an air-space; capsule obliquely ascending, the upper sur- 

 face flattened, the urn brownish and with a short erect collum and narrowed 

 above to a very small mouth; a low pseud-annulus present consisting of a 

 number of layers of cells; outer peristome of one to several rows of short 

 and irregular teeth; inner peristome a pale, plaited, membranous truncated cone, 

 as in Diphyscium, 32-carinate; spore-sac small, surrounded by a large air- 

 space; spores small; operculum small, conic-obtuse, erect, falling tardily with 

 the upper part of the columella attached; calyptra small, covering only the 

 operculum, glabrous, fugacious. 



A rather widely distributed genus of 5 species, 3 or which occur in North 

 America, one in our region. 



1. Buxbaumia aphylla Linnaeus, Hedwig 

 "Bug-on-a-Stick Moss" 



Plate XXX 



Plants minute on a thick, brownish, felted protonema and after the devel- 

 opment of the sporophyte usually completely obscured by a dense growth of 

 protonemal filaments: seta erect, stout, rough, about 1 cm high, castaneous; 

 capsule when ripe, lustrous, castaneous, ovate-acuminate in outline, flattened 

 obliquely in the upper two-thirds, with angular edges, smoothish, about 5-7 

 mm long, resembles a shriveled grain of wheat; operculum about 1.5 mm high, 

 oblong-conic, disproportionately small; calyptra falling early, conic, covering 

 only about one-half of operculum; peristome consisting of an outer series of 

 papillose short, slender teeth, and a longer, papillose, conical, plaited cone; 

 spores smooth, spherical, about .007 mm in diameter, mature in late fall and 

 early spring. 



On clayey banks in woods or, particularly, along neglected roadsides, often 

 with thalli of Cladonia. Rarely en decayed wood. Europe, Asia, and, in 

 North America, from Canada to Virginia and Washington State. Found 

 commonly in Butler and adjacent counties, but to find it requires a proper 

 recognition of its habitat and a trained eye. It is usually on clay roadside 

 banks mixed with white flecks of some Cladonia lichen. 



Collected by Sidney K. Eastwood from more than thirty localities in Butler County 

 (Eastwood, S. K. Bryologist 39: 127-129. 1936). Now known from the following coun- 

 ties: Allegheny, Beaver, Butler, Cimeron (Porter's Catalogue), Clarion, Clearfield, Fay- 

 ette, Huntingdon (Porter's Catalogue), Indiana, Lawrence, Lycoming, and Westm.orelind. 

 Specimen figured: On clay bank with decayed wood, 3 mi. n. of Wurtemberg. G.K.J. 

 Oct. 16, 1910. 



Family 21. Tetraphidaceae 



( Georgijceae ) 

 Autoicous: slender to very small, dull, gregarious to cespitose, bright to 

 brownish-green; stem erect, leaves 3-5 seriate, unistratose, costa obscure to 

 well-developed and ending just below the apex; cells parenchymatous, thick- 



