MISCELLANEA BRYOLOGICA 135 



A remarkable form of Dicranuh fuscescens Turn. 



The late Mr. T. H. Russell, not long before his death, sent me 

 a Dicramom gathered by him in July 1910 by Loch Garten, Inverness, 

 which presents some puzzling features. The leaves are of the fusces- 

 cens form, with long, fine points somewhat crisped when dry, out the 

 areolation is rather that of var. congestum. The remarkable feature, 

 however, is that the capsule is practically erect and symmetrical, only 

 the young capsules showing a very slight curvature when dry ; the 

 beak of the lid is straight and erect or slightly inclined. In all the 

 fruiting plants in my herbarium the capsule is strongly curved, and 

 the lid usually somewhat inclined in the same direction, so that the 

 actual position of the lid becomes either horizontal or more frequently 

 deflexed. Specimens in the British Museum collection show capsules 

 with a slight approach to the pi-esent form. 



I sent a specimen to Herr Loeske, who wrote (in 1911) that he 

 considered it a form of the congestum-fuscescens species, of which 

 hundreds of varieties and thousands of forms had been distinguished, 

 and many more remained undistinguished. He did not, however, say 

 whether the present form of capsule came under the former or the 

 latter category ! On the whole it seems best to place it under 

 D. fuscescens, but it is a plant well worth further investigation. 



ECTROPOTHECIUM AUSTRALE Jaeg. 



Paris (Index, ed. 2, ii. 103) has the following : — 



"Ectropothecium australe (CM.) Jaeg. Ad. ii. p. 521 

 (1877-78). 



Hypnum australe 0. M. ii. p. 302 (1851). 



H. limatum R.f fy W. Fl. antarct. Suppl. ii. p. 315 (1847) 



et Fl. Tasman. ii. p. 113 (1800). 

 H. terra-novae * var. australe eor. Fl. antarct. i. p. 142, t . 61 

 (1844)." 

 The plant in question is not, however, an Ectropothecium. 

 Hook. f. & Wils. described a plant, in Fl. antarct. i. p. 142, from 

 Campbell Id., as Hypnum terros-novce Brid., var. nov. australe. Sub- 

 sequently it was found by these authors to be quite distinct, and 

 was raised to specific rank as H. limatum in the Suppl. to the Fl. 

 antarctica, ii. 345 (1847). C. Mueller, evidently in ignorance of 

 this later development, himself raised the plant to specific rank as 

 Hypnum australe (Syn. ii. 302), placing it under a Section containing 

 other species now placed in Ectropothecium. Jaeger & Sauerbeck 

 (Adumbr. ii. 524) transfer this to the genus Ectropothecium, doubt- 

 less not from having seen the plant but from simply concluding this 

 to be its taxonomic position owing to its place in the Synopsis — on 

 the principle of "tell me who are your companions and I will tell you 

 what you are ! "f Like C. Mueller, Jaeger overlooks H. limatum 

 H. f. & W. 



* H. terrm-novse Brid., omitted by Paris in the Ind. Bryolog - ., is a synonym of 

 Stereodon imponens (Hedw.) Mitt. 



f It might of course be argued that Jaeger had under his eyes a plant from 

 Campbell I. which he took to be Hooker's plant, and which was really an 

 Ectropothecium, and distinct ; but that is for several reasons in the highest 

 degree improbable. 



