262 Britton : Bryological notes 



to it by various authors show this to be the most marked charac- 

 teristic of the species. The same habit is described by Correns 

 in Lcncodon sciuroides. He states that it is dioicous and seldom 

 fruits and is propagated by brittle branchlets, a habit of tree- 

 growing species. The young stems are unbranched and simple, 

 but later they have short, small-leaved lateral branches which are 



brittle and fugacious ! 



The fruit has not been carefully described. This is a transla- 

 tion of what Miiller savs of it : 



•• Perichaetium long -exserted, very narrow, pale; leaves long lanceolate-acumi- 



■ 



nate, convolute, long-reticulate ; capsule on a long slender yellow pedicel, erect, ovate, 

 brownish. 



** Very common throughout the Antilles and the neighboring borders of Venezuela, 



but very rarely fertile, first collected by Bertero in San Domingo, 



** A very beautiful and very distinct species. Fruit of N, longiseta. 



n 



We have this species from five stations near Miami, Florida, 

 where it has been collected by Garber and by Small ; also at Lake 

 Harris,/. D, Smith, 1 879. It was distributed from Cuba, Chas, 

 Wright 68 ; Porto Rico, Sintenis jj, Heller S7 8 and 820, 0. F. 

 Cook loji ; Jamaica, Underzvood 2g8i and 201^, and Maxo/i S43. 

 Also from Mexico, near Cordova, C. Mohr, 1857 and Pringlc 214.6. 



In searching through the literature to see whether this species 

 had previously been recorded from the United States, I found in 

 Kindberg's European and North American Bryince that he includes 

 Alsia abietina under Leptodon with L. Smithii, the type of the 

 genus ; that he separates Z^/^^^/<?;/ trichomitrion under Forsstroemid 

 Lindberg, including five North American species ; that he places 

 under A/sia, A. longipcs and A. circinnata (Brid.) ; and transfers 

 Alsia californica^ the type species of this genus, to Antitriclda 

 and rechristens it Antitrichia psetido-californica, because there was 

 al ready zwA ntitricJda calif or nica SuU. He tran sfers this last species 



■ i 



to a new genus and calls it Macouniella californica Kindb. There 

 are five distinct propositions here which will be taken up separately. 

 There is no question that Leptodon Smithii resembles Alsia 

 abietina Sull. in its circinate habit, but it is a very superficial resem- 

 blance, which the leaf-characters at once dispel ! There is a much 

 greater resemblance to Pterobryimi densiun Hsch. in the shape, 

 serration and venation of the leaves ; but the prominent spinose 



