MISCELLANEA BRYOLOGICA 123 



be a consensus of opinion in putting a merciful end to this much 

 tormented name. 



Daltonia nov^-zelandi^ Mitten. 



In Journ. Linn. Soc. (Bot.) iv. (1859), p. 95, Mitten described 

 a plant under the above name from " New Zealand, ravines near 

 Wellington, Stephenson." In the Handbook of the Neio Zealand 

 Flora this is reduced, without comment, to a synonym of D. 

 nervosa (H. f. & W.), and D. novce-zelandice forthwith disappears 

 from bryological literature. 



Quite recently Mr. W. Gray, from whom I have received many 

 interesting New Zealand mosses, sent me a packet labelled " 168, 

 Daltonia mixed with Saulovia, Eopuaranga, Wairarapa, N. Z," 

 On examination it proved to be a species unknown to me, and 

 appeared to agree quite well with Mitten's original description of 

 D. novce-zelandice. Further, it became clear that this description 

 by no means fitted the plant now known as Bellia nervosa (H. f. & 

 W.) Broth. {Hookeria nervosa H. f. & W.), a robust plant with 

 stout nerve reaching to apex, and very short seta, which with 

 D. straminea Mitt, has been placed in the new genus Bellia by 

 Brotherus on account of these features, and especially of certain 

 definite peristome characters. Now Mitten, among other things, 

 has for his D. novce-zelandicB "nervo sub apice evanido," while he 

 describes it as very closely resembling D. splachnoides in habit ; 

 neither of which remarks applies at all to Bellia nervosa. I 

 therefore attempted to see Stephenson's plant, of which Mitten 

 writes that only a very small quantity had been seen. None, 

 however, is to be found in the National Collections ; nor is there 

 any plant in Mitten's own herbarium so labelled; but Mrs. Britton 

 has found with D. pusilla H. f. & W. a mounted specimen, 

 "Daltonia, New Zealand" — the only New Zealand Daltonia to be 

 found in the collection. This is in all probability Stephenson's 

 plant. It agrees exactly with W. Gray's 168, and with Mitten's 

 original description of D. novce-zelandicB, and is an entirely good 

 species, in no way closely related to Bellia nervosa (H. f. & W.). 

 It is most nearly allied, perhaps, to the Tasmanian D. pusilla H. f. 

 & W., but that is a smaller plant, with decidedly narrower and 

 more attenuated leaves, and distinctly narrower cells.''' The 

 areolation in D. novce-zelandice is rather markedly wide and not 

 much incrassate, while the leaves are somewhat abruptly narrowed 

 above to a moderately wide, not very attenuated nor very acute 

 point. It is at present known only from the two localities above 

 mentioned, in the North Island. 



Beachythecium trachypodium (Funck) B. & S. in Britain. 



Brachytheciuvi trachypodium is recorded in the Census Cata- 

 logue of British Mosses (1907) for v.-c. 88, i. e., Mid Perth. The 

 record depends, I believe, entirely upon a specimen in Mitten's 



* It is doubtfully distinct, as Fleischer suggests (Musci . . . vonBuitenzorg, 

 iii. 960), from D. angiiMifolia Dz. & Mb. ; which again is scarcely separable 

 from the probably widespread D. splachnoides Hook. & Tayl. 



