314 APPENDIX. No. XIV. 



North America this species is entirely Subalpine and Alpine, 

 and it does not appear to pass southward beyond the northern 

 temperate zone. A nearly resembling species is found on the 

 Andes, and two others on the Himalaya ; in Antarctic regions 

 it is represented by a species so similar that it was at first 

 considered in the ' Flora Antarctica ' to be the same. All the 

 species are very similar, and the South American were placed 

 in the section Isocarpus, of the genus Dicranum. In M. 

 Schimper's first edition of the ' Synopsis of European Mosses ' 

 the group of species, of which D. crispula is the largest, 

 formed his section Emveisia, of the genus Weisia ; but in 

 the second edition of the same work they are removed from the 

 genus Weisia, and now bear the generic name here used for 

 the species, although still considered by him to belong to the 

 family Weisiece. 



Rhacomitrium lanuginosa m. Dill. — Payer Harbour, 

 lat. 78° 42' N. ; barren. The specimen is but moderately 

 hoary, and as usual in Arctic specimens quite barren ; although 

 a moss which abounds in Subalpine and Alpine situations, it 

 is widely dispersed in the plains of Europe, occurring even on 

 tiled buildino's but little above the sea level. Antarctic 



o 



specimens are usually more hoary, and have received various 

 names, on the presumption of their being distinct ; Chilian 

 specimens were described by De Notaris as R. senile, Ant- 

 arctic ; by C. Muller as R. geronticum. 



Pottia Heimii, Hedw. — Floeberg Beach ; with ripe capsules. 

 These specimens show this species in a form very different 

 from those so common on the coasts of Britain, for the leaves 

 are oblong and obtuse, and it is only here and there that a 

 trace is observable of the serrulation usually so evident ; the 

 lower leaves are very short and very widely ovate, with the 

 nerve vanishing below the apex, and the rather thick apiculus 

 of the operculum does not exceed in length half the diameter 

 of the mouth of the capsule. Specimens gathered in Beechey 

 Island by Doctor Lyall do not differ from the usual European 

 states, except that, as in the case of those from Floeberg Beach, 

 the foliage is more distinctly bordered with the paler cells. 



