178 THE JOURNAL OF INDIAN BOTANY. 



of the border, and I think its proper place is as a var. of F. Walker i t 

 in spite of the objection that it is thus necessarily placed in the 

 § Semilirnbidium, characterized by the presence of a border on the 

 vaginant lamina. The objection is a practical, not a scientific one, how- 

 ever ; for there is no doubt that the presence of a weak border, or the 

 entire absence of a border on the vaginant lamina, may at times be a 

 character of scarcely any taxonomie value. One example, a Fissidens 

 sent me recently from Fiji by Mr. W. Greenwood, manifested no 

 trace whatever of border, and I determined it as a new species of 

 Crenularia. Subsequently further specimens of what was obviously 

 the same moss showed traces of a faint border to the vag. lamina here 

 and there ; and later, fertile specimens showed a distinct border, 

 (while leaves on the sterile stems of the same gathering often showed 

 none at all) ; and the plant was recognizable as an'already described 

 species of Semilirnbidium. In this connection it may be noticed that 

 F. Zippelianus Bry. jav. (a Javan species with a somewhat wide 

 distribution both East and West) while normally without border and 

 placed by G. Mueller and Brotherus in Crispidium, is figured in the 

 Bry. jav. showing a border on the vag. lamina ; which appears to 

 bring it into very close relationship with F. Walkeri. 



Fissidens subfirmus Dixon sp. nov. (fig. 3). 



Sordide viridis ; caespites densos instruens. Gaules circa 1 cm, 

 alti, vel paullo ultra, saepe ramulosi ; folia confertissima, subaequalia, 

 frondem regularem densam circa 2 mm. latam instruentia, sicca 

 eniter deplanata hand crispata, circa 1 mm. longa, oblongo-lingul- 

 ata, acuta nee acuminata, aliquando tantum sabacuta, superne cellulis 

 marginalibus prominentibus minute denticulata. Lamina vaginans 

 circa h longitudinis folii, limbo superne angustissimo infra latiusculo 

 plusminusve distincte circumdata ; lamina dorsalis ad folii insertionem 

 producta, ibique rotundata ; costa sat valida, tricta, bene definita, 

 flava, percurrens. Cellulae majusculae, 8-13 /* latae, hexagonae, parieti- 

 bus fir?7iis, crassiusculis, sub pell ucidae. Theca in pedunculo perbrevi 

 (2-3mm.) crassiusculo, indistincte ruguloso, subcurvato, erecta vel. 

 leniter inclinata, symmetrica, ovalis, subpachydermata, parva, sicca 

 subore vix coustricta. Operculum haud visum. 



Hab. Anmod (3266), (5375). 



A marked species with rather large, pellucid cells, and vag, 

 lamina distinctly bordered (the border is most distinct in the per- 

 ichaetial leaves and upper stem leaves, and may be almost or quite 

 wanting in the lower leaves) ; in the short subrugulose seta, and 

 minute rather thick-walled capsule. 



F. subobscurus Par. (F. obscurus Mitt, in Journ. Linn. Soc, 

 Bot. Vol. III. Suppl. p. 139, nee F. obscurus Mitt. op. cit. p. 138) is 



