203 



what inflated below, contracted and lax above, crenulate at mouth, 

 3-5 cells thick at juncture with perigynium-tube, 2 cells thick at 

 mouth ; calyptra fleshy, upper third or fourth free at maturity, 3- 

 6 cells in thickness; archegonia several, the unfertilized raised on 

 the base of the free portion of calyptra. 



Capsule long-cylindrical; valves very slender, 3.3-6 mm.X.13- 

 .17 mm., widely spreading when dry, attached spiro-radially to a 

 basal disc composed of large hyaline cells, flexuous, contorted, or 

 spiral, on moistening, — always with a spiral twist at the apex ; foot 

 of sporogonium forming a more or less goblet-shaped " involu- 

 cellum "; seta I ^-2 cm. long ; elaters bi-spiral, very rarely tri- 

 spiral, acute or sub-obtuse, 210-420 X 12-15 /^-l spores about 12//, 

 minutely papillate. 



Male plants more slender; antheridia (1-6) in the axils of 

 smaller saccate leaves, forming spikes of 3-6 pairs of leaves de- 

 creasing in size upwards, appressed, apices patent or recurved, 

 or, in uppermost pair, erect; antheridia ellipsoidal or pyriform, 

 .15 X -24 mm., on pedicels i^ as long ; slender stems (male?) oc- 

 casionally gemmiferous at apex, gemmae unicellular, 10-24//. in 

 diameter. 



Collected by the author on clay banks near Eureka, Humboldt 

 Co., California, June, 1896; also by Prof. John Macoun (Herb. 

 Underwood), on earth in abrook, Burrard Inlet, British Columbia, 

 April 6, 1889, and on rocks, British Columbia, April 29, 1889. 



The leaves of the British Columbia plants stand with their mar- 

 gins more often erect than in the California specimens, upon which 

 our description and figures have been based. In the sterile con- 

 dition, GyrotJiyra somewhat resembles the larger forms of Nardia 

 scalaris — also collected by Macoun on Vancouver Island (Can. 

 Hep. 80)— but can readily be distinguished by the margined, 

 lingulate, more translucent leaves and by the bifid underleaves. 



The involucral leaves, though more or less apparently paired, 

 are in a strict sense alternate like the cauline, and a single unpaired 

 leaf is sometimes found to occur inside the pair we have de- 

 scribed as the uppermost. 



It should be remarked that but few capsules of the plant have 

 been seen and that these were already open or so young as to be 

 still enclosed within the calyptra, so the actual dehiscence has not 

 been observed, but the extremely long valves, which on being 

 soaked out take easily a position strongly suggestive of the paring 

 of an apple, the spiro-radial attachment to the basal disc, the 

 never failing spiral twist of the valve-apex, and the spiral lines 



