140 THE JOURNAL OF BOTANY 



views and wrote about it as follows : — "A remarkable form — perbaps 

 a distinct species, and certainly a good variety. From all my 

 examples it differs in being more rigid ; in its sub-falcate, secund 

 leaves, wbicb are less flexiiose and shorter, and have mostly much 

 shorter and broader points ; and in its shorter, broader, often sub- 

 j)yriform capsule, which in age is sometimes markedly asymmetrical. 

 The male flowers are ver\^ numerous and .gemmiform. The processes 

 of the endostome show under a high power minute punctate mark- 

 ings, which I could not see in an}^ of m3^ ordinary gatherings with 

 which I compared it, and there are other differences in the processes. 

 The spores are as in the typical plant. It could be passed in the 

 field very easily as a Dlcranella.'''' Mr. D. A. Jones of Harlech, who 

 also examined the plant, reported on it as follows : — " This is an 

 interesting jjlant and differs from the type in its heteroicous in- 

 florescence and gibbous capsule. On some of the stems the inflor- 

 escence is normally paroicous, while gemmiform male floAvers occur 

 among the ordinary leaves lower down. Plants with terminal male 

 flowers also occur. I have not been able to And any abortive arche- 

 gonia among the antheridia in these as is the case in Lejjtohryum 

 fyriforme. Mr. Dixon thinks it deserves a varietal name." 



There is no doubt about the distinctness of the plant from the 

 normal O. c/racile, but the question of its varietal or speciHc value is 



The two middle figures represent capsules of ths type, the four 

 on each side, of the variety. X 7. 



a more diflicult matter. In the family Bryacece, to which Ortho- 

 dontium belongs, the distribution of the sexual organs is mqyj 

 variable, and though this character has been used as of specific 

 value — e. g. Brifiim pscudotrKiueirnm differs from B. himum in being 

 dioicous instead of synoicous — the specific distinctness of species 

 founded on such a variable character is more than doubtful. If the 

 characters given above were constant the status would be specific. 

 O. qracile, however, is a variable species in regard to its leaves, and in 

 the' distribution of the sexual organs, and the Crowden plant also 

 shows great variability. In some barren plants, taken from damper 

 and soil-capped rojks, the leaf-points were quite as long and as 

 flexuose as in the type, and the tufts, vivid-green above and reddish- 

 brown below, mimicked those of Zygodon Mouyeotii ; the only con- 

 stant characters in which the plant is undoubtedly distinct from 

 O. qracile are found in the sporogonium. I propose to name it a 

 variety : — 



OltTHODONTirM GRACTLE SchwaegT. Var. HETEROCARPA, milii. 

 Differs from the type in the shorter, broader, often more or less 

 gibbous ca})sule, which may be smooth or deeply sulcate, straight or 



