224* Dr Hooker and Dr Greville on the Genus Hookeria 



broad Iacinias, at other times into long narrow filiform seg- 

 ments, as in Hookeria cristata and scabriseta. The surface 

 is never furrowed, but occasionally pitted and distinctly cel- 

 lular, either glabrous, hairy, or hispid with short thick pro- 

 cesses. 



With regard to station, the Hookeria? grow on the ground 

 and on the trunks and branches of trees. Some inhabit the 

 tropics, others are peculiar to the southern hemisphere, two 

 only are found in Europe, one of which reaches to very high 

 northern latitudes. 



The excellent Schwaegrichen, treading in the steps of his 

 illustrious predecessor Hedwig, discards the calyptra in the 

 formation of his generic characters of mosses, and hence will 

 not allow the Hookeria of Smith to be a valid genus ; and in 

 the 2d volume of his Supplement, he has given the name 

 Hookeria to a genus of mosses, which Hooker himself had 

 previously published in Branded Journal of Science, under the 

 appellation of Tayloria. 



One species of this genus, Hookeria pennata, was so long 

 ago as the year 1S05 published by P. deBeauvois in his Pro- 

 drome de ViEtheogamic, under the name of Cyathophorum pte- 

 ridioides, but with a character so loose and imperfect, and a 

 name so inexpressive, that no author seems to have adopted 

 it; and it was unquestionably intended solely for the plant in 

 question. We might say the same of this author's genus, 

 Racopilum, which he designed should embrace our H. deprcs- 

 sa, and the Hypnum tomentomm of Hedwig. To it he as- 

 signs the character of a calyptra cleft on one side ; but with 

 somewhat more propriety, Bridel only places the single spe- 

 cies H. tomentosum, in this genus. 



In the Methodus Muscorum, published in 1819, Bridel 

 has formed a genus Chcctephora, from Smith's H. cristata, 

 the character resting mainly upon the filamentous calyptra. 



Lastly, we may observe, that in the work just quoted, its 

 author has also invented the genus Pte?-ygophyUum, which he 

 expressly states to be the Hookeria of Smith, and the Cyatho- 

 phorum of Beauvois, differing from Ch&tephora solely in its 

 glabrous calyptra. He has made the number of its species 

 fifteen, but of these he mentions two as but doubtfully be- 

 longing to that genus, whilst three others, P. struthiopteris, 



