Tae MuicroscoricaL NeEws 
AND 
NORTHERN MICROSCOPIST. 
No. 27. MARCH. 1883. 
NOES VON Tt MGS SES: 
By WILLIAM STANLEY. 
( Continued from page 39. ) 
LLIED to Gymnostomum on the one hand, and to Dicranum 
on the other is the genus Wezssza, named in honour of Weiss, 
a cryptogamic botanist of Gottingen. 
It has erect, oblong-ovate capsules ona long straight fruitstalk ; 
lid with an inclined beak and annulus persistent ; peristome of 
sixteen linear-lanceolate teeth, equi-distant, without a medial line, 
entire or perforate and sometimes bifid at the apex. Leaves 
octofarious, curved and crisped when dry, lanceolate or linear- 
lanceolate ; nerved, and of close texture. 
The plants are czspitose, and perennial with forked branches 
(dichotomous), and are generally found on soil. Wezssta controversa, 
the green-tufted Weissia, is frequent on banks, &c., and is dis- 
tinguished from VW. cirrhata by the involute margins of the leaves ; 
the stems are } to } inch in height, more or less branched with 
lower leaves lanceolate, and upper leaves linear-lanceolate ; nerve 
slightly excurrent ; capsule oval, lid conical, with a rostrate beak ; 
annulus narrow. Inflorescence monoicous and barren flowers 
gemmiform. (Fig. 22.) 
As is generally the case with Mosses and other plants widely 
distributed, this species presents a good deal of variation of form. 
Also, monoicous, although not so frequent, are. mucranata, 
the point-leaved Weissia, and W. cirrhata, the bent-leaved Weissia. 
The first is rather smaller than W. controversa, and has oblong 
capsules ; the leaves have plain margins, with nerve excurrent into 
a slight mucro. It is found on fallow clay ground. VW. arrhata is 
found on posts and rails, also on rocks in mountainous districts, 
and is known by the reflexed entire margins of the leaves. The 
pale brown capsule has the teeth of the peristome inserted con- 
siderably below the contracted mouth, and varies in shape from 
VOL. III. 
