A NEW MOSS FROM IRELAND. 29 



The oldest denomination of the genus is rather difficult to deter- 

 mine. The Bpecies have been called I • v different authors Didymodon, 

 Dt8Sodon, Pottia, Syrrhopodon, and Weissia ; but only Dr. C. 

 Mallei and Mr. Mitten have given them proper generic denomina- 

 tions. The former called tlic genus at firsl Amblyphyllum among 

 the synonyms under his Dissodou rotundifolius (Synop. Muse. I., 

 p. 1 10), but without any diagnosis ; later (in Verh. X. B. 3 I 

 Wien, 1869, p. 503) Splachnobryum. Mr. Mitten also has named 

 it, but without any generic description, Tapeinodon i in Spruce, Cat. 

 Muse. Amaz. And., p. 1 (1867), and in his Muse Austr. Amer., 

 p. 141 (18G9), Weissia, Sect. 8, Tapetnodon. Which name musi 

 we adopt according to the law of prioiity ? 1 think Amblyphyllum ; 

 but we must not forget that in Midler's Syn. Muse. I., p. 286, we 

 again find the same name applied to a section of Bryum* But 

 this section, formed of B. calophyllum and cyclopliyllinii, is very 

 unnatural, and can never be considered as a genus, distinct from 

 the other species of the vast genus Bryum. I cannot, therefore, 

 see any objection to using the denomination Amblyphyllum for this 

 very natural and interesting genus of Trichostomece. 



A Grimmia new to Britain. 

 Mr. Bagnall, of Birmingham, detected, in June last, a species of 

 Grimmia he could not determine, which I at once recognised as 

 G. crinita, Brid., a species closely allied to G. anodon, and occurring 

 in Southern Europe, on the plaster of walls. He found it occupy- 

 ing a precisely similar locality on the wall of a bridge over the canal 

 a few miles from Warwick, and its characters are as follows : — 



Grimmia crinita, Bridel, Sp. Muse., part 1, p. 95 (180G). 

 Monoicous, in low diffuse flat tufts, silky on the surface, with 

 long white hairs, which form a pencil-like tip to the branches. 

 Stem simple, or but slightly divided. Leaves imbricated, erecto- 

 appressed, lowest lanceolate, muticous, upper obovate, oblong 

 channelled, with a broadly diaphanous apex continued into a hair as 

 long as the lamina, which in the pericheetial leaves extends far 

 above the capsule ; nerve vanishing below apex ; margin erect or 

 plane; cells at base elongated, diaphanous, above finely chloroph)l- 

 lose, oblong or rounded, large, incrassate. Capsule on a weak 

 sigmoid pedicel, subcernuous, subventricose ovate, lightly striate 

 brown, furrowed when dry ; operculum convex, with an obtuse 

 conical point ; annulus broad, compound ; calyptra dimidiate, 

 bilobed ; teeth of peristome red, erect, bi-trifid to the middle. 



R.B. 



* As the system of vegetation in mosses must be regarded as of much greater 

 importance than that of fructification, in the natural limitations of the higher 

 divisions, I am convinced that Lcptobryum pyriforme holds a very artificial place 

 among the true Bryccs ; and I propose to transfer it to Ditrit 

 chacea), on account of its habit and mode of growth, the form and structure of the 

 .uid bracts, the synoicous inflorescence, and the glossy leptodermoufl theca. 

 The habit and leaf structure are nearly the same as in 1>. pallidum, and this very 

 natural genus thus holds in Ditrichacece a place analogous to Lamprophyllum 

 (WeberaJ, among teryece, and, indeed, there exists between these two genera 

 (Leptobryum and LampropTvylkmi), analogy, but no affinity at all. 



