336 PTILIDIE. 
entirely wanting there; while the curious and elegant Lepidolena—so 
wonderfully “ mimicking” Frullania in its vegetative organs, but with a 
totally different fructification—does not begin to appear until some way 
beyond the southern tropic, and has its headquarters in the cooler parts 
of the south temperate zone. There can be no doubt of the close relation- 
ship of the plants I have combined in this group, their most obvious 
character being the equably tristichous, cloven leaves, whereof the postical 
are nearly, or quite, as large as the lateral, and are never absent in any 
species. The polyphyllous 2 involucres, always borne either on the 
apex of the stem or of a side-branch—never on a postical branch, although 
such branches exist in at least two genera—afford another good and very 
nearly constant character. For in the next subtribe (Trigonanthee) a 
postical inflorescence prevails through the great majority of the genera 
and species, even in cases where the leafy branches are all lateral, as they 
are in many Lepidozie. 
Characters, often esteemed of the greatest weight, break down when 
applied to this group. Thus T’richocolea, whose involucre, perianth, and 
calyptra are soldered into a long scaly cup, of which the constituent 
envelopes can rarely be discriminated except by careful dissection, is so 
exactly like Leiomitra in its vegetative organs, that without fruit the two 
genera are undistinguishable. Yet in the latter the calyptra is quite free 
from the involucre, and there is no monophyllous perianth at all. It is 
possible that too much importance has been assigned to adhesions of the 
floral organs, thereby obscuring our perception of what are really more 
obvious and important affinities. Nor are the adhesions so invariable as 
has been assumed ; for the calyptra of Trichocolea is sometimes free, or at 
least easily separable, from the involucre.* 
Again, Chandonanthus squarrosus and hirtellus (ef. Hooker, Muse. Exot. 
t. 78 and 79, under Jungermania) are so like Lepicolea pruinosa 'Tayl. (to 
be described below) in habit, in the scaly stems, and the deeply cloven, 
ciliated leaves (although the leaves are only once bifid in the former 
genus and twice bifid in the latter) that, in a natural arrangement, they 
must stand in the same group ; yet the leaves in Lepicolea are ineubous, 
in Chandonanthus decidedly suceubous. The pluriplicate perianths in 
the latter genus, added to other points of resemblance, plainly show its 
affinity to Anthelia; in which, however, the leaves are transverse ! 
Lepicolea pruinosa on another hand resembles our Mastigophora Woodsi 
in habit, colour, and in the way the leaves are cloven and ciliated, so that 
they might well be supposed congeners. The fruit and perianth of both 
species are hitherto unknown, and if M. Woodsiz should one day be found 
to possess an adherent involucre, it will have to be placed in Lepicolea. 
But if the perianth prove distinct from the involucre, I hardly see how 
the species can be kept apart from Ptilidium (= blepharoza Dum.) where 
indeed it was placed by Dumortier. The Mastigophore of which the 
perianth and fruit are known, have all only lateral (no postical) branches, 
on some of which the ? flowers are borne; and such branches are not 
always shortened down to flowers alone, but have often several normal 
leaves below the bracts (¢.g. in M. diclados): being, in fact, no shorter 
than the floriferous branches are sometimes seen in Ptilidiwm ciliare, so 
that it becomes difficult to assign any really valid distinction between 
Ptilidium and Mastigophora. 
* Of. Carrington on Trich. Tomentella in Hep. Brit., p. 40. 
