Ilir.lCOPTLOPSTS TKTNITENSTS 87 



and tliey care figured by Cardot as quite conspicuous on Tab. 180 of 

 tlie Atlas of the 3Ioitsses dc. Madagascar. 



The fact is that the species is an extremely variable one, as 

 pointed out by Cardot in his article on Congo mosses already cited. 



The difficulty of deciding the question has been increased by the 

 uncertainty as to the fruiting characters of the American IL. trini- 

 tense. On this Mrs. Britton writes : " It is evident from the original 

 description of Ili/pnum trinitense C. M., that Mueller had specimens 

 from three localities in Trinidad ; Maraccas, Arima, and Mt. Tocuche, 

 all collected by Crueger in the years 1844 to 1847, which were not 

 all one species ! Mitten had a specimen from Tocuche only, and it 

 will be seen from his description of Ectropotliechtm trinitense that 

 he accurately described the dimorphic leaves, for he says : ' inferiora 

 omnia dimidio minore.' His specimens were sterile, but he unfor- 

 tunately cited portions of Mueller's description of the fruit without 

 quotation marks, and states at the end *ab E. [iT.] subsimplice 

 longe diversum.' Portions of Crueger's plants are referable to 

 ir. suhsimplex Hedw. ; the original description of H. trinitense 

 shows this by describing the vesicular alar cells, and the fruiting 

 plants evidently were also this species; but that Mueller had both 

 these species confused in his original description is also evident ; for 

 the eighth to the fifteenth lines refer to the twisted, falcate, serrate 

 leaves of the Tocuche specimen and agree perfectly with what 

 Mitten called Ectropothecinm. Therefore I am convinced, from 

 studying Mueller's original description of H. trinitense and three 

 other specimens collected by Crueger, that they included Zso/p^'eryymyM 

 tenerum (Sw.) Mitt., Sematopliyllum suhsinqylex (Hedw.) Mitt., and 

 Ectropothecium trinitense Mitt." 



This confusion of the fruit was not confined to Mueller. Mitten's 

 description of the fruit of E. trinitense consists entirely of extracts 

 from C. Mueller's description in the Synopsis ; and there is pretty 

 clear evidence that he had not seen fruit of the true plant. The 

 specimen in his herbarium is sterile, and there are no fruiting speci- 

 mens which he could have consulted at Kew. Of the five American 

 specimens under the name of H. trinitense at Kew, one, the true 

 plant (det. Mitten, c.fr.), is of later date than Miisci uiustro-ameri- 

 cani ; three are sterile ; and the remaining two, from Trinidad, one 

 being part of the original gathering of Crueger's on Mt. Tocuche, are 

 entirely composed of a species of Isopterygium, probably /. tenerum 

 (Sw.) Mitt. These are in good fruit, and it was no doubt on these 

 that Mitten based his idea of the fruit. Truth to tell, the fruiting 

 characters are very siiiiilar to those of the Hhacopilo'psis, and 

 C. Mueller's diagnosis might apply pretty well to either species. 



The fruiting plant mentioned above as having been determined by 

 Mitten at a later date — " EctropotJiecinm trinitense C. Mull. Island 

 of Trinidad. A. Fendler. 1878-1880," is in fairly good fruit, and 

 this shows no difference from the fruit of the African Rhacoiulojjsis 

 Fecliuelii. 



A further plant that has been placed under Ilhacnpiloj)sis is 

 Hypnum chlorizans Welw. & Duby, collected in Angola by VYel- 

 witsch. I have examined the type-gathering of this (Welw. iter 



