106 THE JOURNAL OF BOTANY 



Habitat. East Sussex over a wide area ; East Kent {E. M. 

 Holmes), West Gloucestershire and Worcestershire {H. II. Knight). 



Dr. Miiller describes a var. acrotricha Lev. with marginal 

 cilia, but I have generally found a few cilia on the Sussex plant 

 when freshly gathered. These frequently disappear when the 

 plant is cultivated under moist conditions, but they reappear 

 when the plant has finished its growth or is cultivated under 

 drier and more exposed conditions. I am inclined therefore to 

 regard the presence of cilia in this species as a normal feature of 

 the plant, representing a state in the life of the individual frond 

 rather than a true variety. The Sussex plant is rarely of a vivid 

 green except when growing under very moist conditions ; most 

 frequently it is of a rather pale glaucous colour, recalling that of 

 B. glauca, though it usually has some trace of violet both in the 

 frond itself and the ventral scales. It is probable that some of 

 the plants which I referred to the var. siihinermis of B. glauca in 

 the past may have belonged to the present species. 



The other plant, also rather a critical form, is a species of 

 Fossomhronia, which I gathered in Babbacombe Bay, near 

 Torquay, in March, 1913. I noticed in the field that the plant 

 had a rather stout stem, strongly convex on the under side with 

 hyaline or, occasionally, brownish rhizoids, unlike the violet 

 rhizoids of all the described British species, and the microscope 

 revealed the fact that the papillae on the spores, which were 

 otherwise like those of F. ccBspitifonnis, showed an occasional 

 tendency to anastomosis, so as sometimes to make the surface of 

 the spore very irregularly areolate. These characters seemed to 

 indicate F. Husnoti Corb., but on my submitting the plant to Mr. 

 S. M. Macvicar he pointed out that the spores were considerably 

 larger than those of typical F. Husnoti, 43-53 /x, as against 

 40-45 fx in that species, and that their surface was less distinctly 

 areolate. These differences I was well able to observe by 

 comparing my plant with a specimen of F. Husnoti from Florence, 

 which I owed to the kindness of Dr. Schiifner. On my submitting 

 the Babbacombe plant to Dr. Schiffner, he pronounced it to be 

 certainly F. Husnoti, and he apparently attached considerable 

 importance to the frequent presence of three spiral elaters. In 

 view, however, of the departures from the type above noted I 

 have ventured to describe it as a new variety : — 



FossoMBRONiA HusNOTi Corb. var. anglica. A F. Husnoto 

 cliffert sporis grandioribus •043-053 mm.,papillis minus rcgulariter 

 anastomosantibus foveolas paucas valde irregulares formantibus. 



Hab. Moist banks by the sea, Babbacombe Bay (TF. E. N.), 

 near Llandovery, S. Wales (H. H. K). 



F. Husnoti and F. ccBspitiformis are very closely allied species, 

 and it might seem as reasonable to describe the present plant as 

 a variety of the latter as of the former, but in a genus where the 

 violet rhizoids are such a marked feature of the other European 

 species, it seemed worth while to draw attention to a form with 

 hyaline or brownish rhizoids, a feature which I have found 

 maintained on cultivation of considerable material. The stem, 



