372 Mr. R. Spruce on the Musci and Hepaticee of the Pyrenees. 



C. M., and Voitia, Hornsch., form a distinct tribe, under the name 

 of Ephemerece : but, considered as to the sum of their characters, I 

 apprehend they must be united to Funariacece. The transition to 

 recognized members of the latter family is in fact so gradual that it 

 is impossible to indicate where the break should be made. Ephe- 

 merum patens, for example, is undistinguishable except by very mi- 

 nute examination from Aphanorhegma serrata, Sullivant (in Gray's 

 ' Manual of the Botany of the Northern United States,' p. 647), which 

 on its side is scarcely generically distinct from Physcomitrium. And 

 if, by the almost universal consent of bryologists, gymnostomous 

 mosses are no longer to form a separate tribe, but are to be distri- 

 buted among those peristomatous tribes and genera to which they 

 have in all their other characters a perfect atKnity, why should we 

 accord a greater favour to astomous mosses, w'hich repose on an 

 equally negative character for their separation ? In other words, if 

 there be no acknowledged tribe of Gymnocarpi, why should there be 

 one of Cleistocarpi} This query is rendered more unanswerable by 

 the consideration that as there are individual mosses (e. g. Encalypta 

 vulgaris) which unite in themselves the characters of Gyviriostomi and 

 Peristomati, so there are other individuals which equally unite the 

 characters of Gymnostomi and Astomi ; I need only instance Phascum 

 rostellutum, Brid., which has in some instances a persistent, in others 

 a deciduous operculum, and is thus in itself both cleistocarpous and 

 steg acarpous : if the former be considered its normal condition, it 

 should be (according to our existing artificial systems) a Phascum ; 

 if the latter, a Hymenostomum ! 



I may in this place take occasion to remark on the very great ra- 

 rity of Phascoid and other annual mosses in the Pyrenees. Above the 

 montose zone, I did not observe a single annual moss, for Funariu hy- 

 grometrica cannot strictly be considered such. There is the same 

 peculiarity in arctic countries, as for instance in Lapland, where ac- 

 cording to Wahlenberg the Phasca and the smaller species of Tortula 

 and Gymnostomum (i. e. Pottia) are altogether wanting ! Contrast 

 with this the following list of Phasca, abundant in cultivated ground 

 near Montpellier in the autumnal and early winter months, which I 

 owe to the kindness of Mr. Bentham : Phascum axillare, bryoides, 

 carniolicum, crispum, curvicollum, cuspidatum, Flarkeanum, muticum, 

 pachycarpum and rectum. 



Tribus 17. Splachnace^e, Bryol. Europ. 

 33. Tayloria, Hook. 



205. T. serrata, Hedw. Spec. Muse. t. 8 (sub Splachno) ; Br. 

 Europ. Tayloria, p. 6. t. 1 ; M. P. 156. 



Hab. Z3 P. c. in monte Crabioules et ad lacum Espingo, juxta 

 pastorum tuguria^ terrestris. 



Var. 7. tenuis, Br. Europ. I.e. t. 2; M. P. 157. Splachnum 

 tenue, Dicks. Cr. Fasc. 2. p. 2. 



Hab. Zg P. occ. supra ligna putrida in valle Jeret. 



