27 



A NEW MOSS FROM IRELAND. 



By Dr. Robt. Bb ai i iiwaite, F.L.S. 

 Splachnobryum. C. Midler, Verhandl. Zool. Bot. Ges. Wien., 

 18G9, p. 501. 

 Calyptra dimidiate, enclosing the whole theca, and embracing 



spirally the upper part of the seta, cleft at the side, smooth, 

 fugacious. Peristome simple, arising below the orifice of capsule ; 

 teeth 16, very narrow, linear-lanceolate, acicular, with the articula- 

 tions remote. Columella immersed. Dioicous, male flower terminal, 

 gemmaceous, without paraphyses. Plants small, slender, with dis- 

 tant spathulate leaves. Natives of equatorial America and India. 



S.Wrightii: C. Mull., 1. c. Entosthodon minimus: Hunt, Proc. 

 Lit. and Phil. Soc. of Manch., xi., p. 19 (1871;. Amblyphyllum 

 Ilibernicum, Lindberg, M.S. 



Dioicous, minute, gregarious. Stems ]■ to | in. high, simple 

 subflexuose, pale red, with a few slightly branched radicles. Leaves 

 bright green distant, with a narrow and slightly decurrent base, 

 patent, rlattish, obovate or spathulate, rounded at apex, the margin 

 somewhat reflexed in the lower half, entire or minutely serrulate in 

 the male plant, crenulate in the upper part in the female ; nerve 

 thick, prominent at back, vanishing below apex, less clearly defined 

 in the male plant ; cells lax, large, pellucid, smooth, incrassate, 

 rhombo-rectangular at base, rhomboidal above, smaller and nearly 

 circular at margin, especially in the male. Male flower terminal, 

 bracts erect, resembling the leaves, antheridia 3 to 8. Seta slender, 

 twisted to the left, pale brownish-yellow ; capsule erect, obconical 

 at base, subcylindric, wide-mouthed, pale brown ; operculum 

 conical, acute ; teeth of peristome very slender, pale red, erect. 

 Calyptra long, conical, very narrow, its cells arranged spirally, 

 spores smooth. Fr. August. 



Ilab. Top of the wall of a forcing-pit in the Botanic Gardens, 

 Glasnevin, Dublin. (Mr. D. Orr.) 



We fear this interesting little moss can hardly be regarded as 

 indigenous, for the spores have most probably been mixed with 

 soil attached to some exotic, and thus accidentally scattered on the 

 sandstone wall, where it was found. So much do the leaves re- 

 semble those of Splachnacea3 in ar eolation, that at first I was in- 

 clined to follow C. Miiller and Hampein referring it to that family ; 

 but on the other hand the equally high authorities Mitten and 

 Lindberg place it in Trichostoniaceae, and after careful considera- 

 tion I am satisfied that in the structure of the peristome, the 

 calyptra like that of Tortula, and the place of growth it entirely 

 accords with that family. 



The type of the genus is S. obtusum, C. Mill. Bridel ( Weissia ob- 

 tusa, Sp. Musc.,i., p. 118, 180G; Didymodon? splachnifolius^ Hook. 

 Muse. Exot., t. 126, 1820; Dissodon rotundifolius, C. Mull, Syn., 

 i., p. 140, 1849), from the Antilles, to which th" presenl B] 

 was referred by Sullivant in the " Mutci Cubenses Wrightiaui " 



