TORTULACE^E.] 188 [Acaulon. 



apex or slightly excurrent, margins plane, cells at base large, rhombo- 

 hexagonal, smaller and incrassate above. Calyptra very small, 

 lacerate at base, corrugated by drying. Capsule concealed in perich. 

 on a straight pedicel, erect, globose, pachydermous, orange-brown ; 

 spores yellow-brown, tuberculate. Male infl. gemmiform, on a short 

 basal branch. 

 HAB. Sandy clay in open grassy places; not uncommon. Fr. 2 3. 



Var. ft. minus. (Hook, Tayl.} 



Plants smaller ; bracts more shortly pointed, entire, scarce exceeding 

 the capsule, which is smaller. 

 SYN. Phascum globosum SCHLEICH. MSS. 



Phase, muticum ft. minus HOOK. TAYL. Muse. br. 7. BRID. Bry. un. i, 23. 



Sphaerangium muticum ft. minus. SCHIMP. Synops. 



Acaulon minus JAEG. Op. c. 78. 



HAB. Sea coast. Torquay (Hooker) ! Findon, Sussex (Davies 1869) ! ! 



From its short duration and concealed capsule this little moss is doubt- 

 less often overlooked ; not unfrequently it has a rufous brown tinge. Although 

 Dillenius's Sph. acaulon &c. minus is represented in his herbarium by a small 

 form of Phascum acaulon, there is little doubt but the early authors also 

 included the present plant. 



2. ACAULON TRIQTTETBUM (Spruce) C. Muell. 



Autoicous ; bracts broadly oval, trifarious, carinate, boat-shaped, 

 connivent, nerve excurrent in a recurved apiculus. Caps, horizontal on 

 a cygneous pedicel. (T. XXVII, H.) 



SYN. Phascum muticum MOUG. NESTL. Stirp. cr. Vog. rhen. n. 802. DRUMM. Muse. Amer. 



n. 8 p.p. 

 Phascum bulbosum Var. y. minimum DE NOT. Syllab. 306 (1838). 



Phase, triquetrnm SPRUCE in Eng. bot. suppl. t. 2901 (1845), et in HOOK. Lond. Journ. bot. 



iv, 189 (1845). RABEN. Deutsch. kr. fl. ii, P. 3, 81 (1848). WILS. Bry. brit. 29, t. 37 



(1855). DE NOT. Epil. bri. ital. 737 (1869). HOBK. Syn. br. m. 27 (1873). 

 Acaulon triquetrum C. MUELL. in Bot. Zeit. v, 100 (1847). Synops. i, 22 (1849). BR. 



SCH. Bry. eur. fasc. 42, Mon. suppl. 3, t. i (1849). JAEG. Ber. St. Gall. ges. 1869, p. 76. 

 Schistidium triq. MITT, in Ann. mag. Nat. hist. 1851, p. 311. 

 SphcErangium triq. SCHIMP. Synops. 14 (1860). BERK. Handb. br. m. 302 (1863). MILDE 



Bry. siles. 92 (1869). LINDB. de Tort. 216 (1864). JURATZ. Laubm. oester.-ung. 89 



(1882). LESQ. JAMES Mosses N. Amer. 41 (1884). 



Autoicous; pale rufescent, densely gregarious, bulbilliform, trique- 

 trous, often with a little fine protonema. Lower leaves very small, 

 nerveless ; upper obovate, apiculate, very concave ; perich. bracts three, 

 very large, broadly obovate, acutely carinate, boat-shaped, connivent, 

 the margin recurved and eroso-denticulate toward apex, nerve excurrent 

 in a recurved apiculus, cells lax, rectangular at base, rhomboidal at 

 apex. Calyptra very small, dilated and irregularly torn at base, caps, 

 on a cygneous pedicel, horizontal, globose, immersed, rufous; spores 



