Jennings: Manual of Mosses— 33. Sematophyllaceae 283 

 I. Sematophyllum Mitten 



(Rhaphidostegium (Bryologia Europaea) DeNor.) 



Usually autoicous: mostly slender, mostly densely and widely cespitose, 

 dark to pale green or yellowish to brownish: stem creeping, more or less elon- 

 gate, regularly pinnately branched or irregular, with branches horizontally 

 spreading to erect, rather julaceous; leaves uniform, non-plicate, concave, entire, 

 ovate to oblong or oblong-elliptic, obtusely to piliferous-acuminate; usually 

 ecostate, rarely obsoletely bi-costate; cells narrowly prosenchymatous, the apical 

 sometimes rhombic, the basal golden-yellow, narrowly rectangular, incrassate 

 and porose, the alar oblong, inflated, hyaline to yellowish or red-brown and 

 forming a small, non-excavate group bounded above by small quadrate cells: 

 seta long, mostly smooth; capsule sub-erect or horizontally inclined, oval to 

 oblong, smooth; peristome hypnoid, teeth lance-subulate, with divisural zigzag, 

 hyaline-bordered, prominently lamellate, especially so in the upper third; peri- 

 stome-segments yellowish, carinate, with a high basal membrane, mostly split, 

 cilia 1 or 2, nodose, or sometimes rudimentary; spores small, lid slenderly 

 subulate-rostrate; calyptra glabrous. 



A genus of about 100 species of temperate and warmer regions, occurring 

 mainly on trees and rocks; 3 species in our region. 



Key to the Species 

 A. Capsules erect and symmetric or nearly so: branches curved at ends and with apical 



leaves second 3. S. adnatum 



A. Capsules more or less inclined or horizontal; leaves erect-spreading in all directions, 



or somewhat secund B 



B. Leaves usually more than 1.5 mm long 2. S. marylandicum 



B. Leaves usually less than L5 mm long 1. S. carolinianttm 



1. Sematophyllum carolinianum (Mueller) E. G. Britton 



(Hypnum carolinianum C. Mueller; H. demissum var. carolinianum 

 Lesquereux and James; Rhaphidostegium carolinianum Jaeger) 



Plate LIII 



Rather dirk green, drooping-cespitose, lustrous: stems irregularly branch- 

 ing, often buried in the sand and then more or less leafless and with erect to 

 ascending simple branchlets about 1-1.5 cm long; leaves imbricate, more or less 

 secund or complanate above, non-plicate, concave, lance-ovate or lance-oblong, 

 more or less sub-serrulate at apex, shortly acute, the margin often rather broad- 

 ly reflexed; costa none, or faintly indicated by striae; median leaf-cells linear- 

 flexuous, small, incrassate, about 8-10:1, towards the base shorter and broader, 

 the alar abruptly much enlarged and inflated to form a group of 2-8 pellucid 

 and hyaline or colored cells; perichaetial leaves rather closely imbricate, lance- 

 oblong, acuminate: seta erect, sinistrorse below, castaneous, about 1 cm long; 

 capsule curved and inclined, constricted below the mouth when dry and empty, 

 the urn about 1.2-1.5 mm long, oblong-pyriform, yellowish; exothecial cells 

 rounded-hexagonal, collenchymatous; peristome orange-yellow, the teeth with 

 distinct divisural and lamellae, dorsally cross-striolate, hyaline-margined, strong- 



