Harveya7i{s. 



N. O. Musci. 



TAB. CCXXXL 



BUUCHIA BREVIPES, 



Laxe caespitosa minuta acaulis, foliis ovatis valde concavis acu- 

 minatis nervo valido longissime excurrentCj seta foliis duplo 

 breviore erecta, capsula obovata cum operculo coadunato 

 acuminata, calyptra magna mitriformi-campanulata longe 

 apiculata margine in lobulis plurimis subaequalibus brevibus 

 fissa. 



Hab. Road-side, neai' " Newlands,'' Cape of Good Hope. 

 Hon, W. H. Harvey, 



Our valued friend, Mr Harvey, has been already eminently 

 successful in his Muscological researches in Southern Africa, even 

 in the immediate vicinity of Cape Town, and the present is a 

 new species of a little known Genus, intermediate between 

 Splachnum and Voitia^ of which only one species has yet been 

 characterized, namely, B* Vogesica^ of the Vogesian Alps; 

 though the authors of the beautiful Bryologia Etiropcea^ Messrs 



Bruch and Schimper, are of opinion that the Phascum flexuosum 

 of Schwaggrichen also belonejs to the same Genus. 



This very humble species forms scattered tufts on the ground, 

 only recognisable as a plant by an eye accustomed to investigate 

 the minuter beauties of the vegetable creation. Root small, 

 fibrous. Stem almost none. Leaves longer than the whole 

 fructification, ovate, very concave, tapering upwards and uniting 



with the strong excurrent nerve to form a long, stout, rigid* 

 hair-like point. Seta scarcely longer than the capsule, which 

 latter is obovate, tapering into a moderately long beak, — the 

 operculum being continuous with the capsule, as in Phascum. 

 Calyptra large, covering the capsule almost entirely, campanu- 

 late, cut at the margin into a number of obtuse, pretty equal 

 lobes, and tapering upwards suddenly into a long mucro. 



Fig. 1. Small tuft :—nat size, /. 2. Single plant, f. 3. Outer, 

 and /. 4, inner leaf. /. 5. Capsule and seta. /. 6. Calyptra. 

 f*l* Sporules: — magnified. 



