TORTULACE^.] 250 [Mollia. 



patulous coma, from a longly sheathing oblong glossy whitish thin base, 

 lineal-lanceolate, yellow-green or somewhat glaucous, when dry arcuato- 

 incurved, the wings more or less undulated, very concave, nerve stout, 

 terete, excurrent in a short mucro ; cells at base hyaline, small elongated 

 rectangular, slanting upward from the nerve to the margin, suddenly 

 joined by the oval chlorophyllose cells, which become rounded subquad- 

 rate toward apex. Perich. bracts similar, but a little more elongated, 

 caps, erect on a subflexuose seta which is yellowish above, purple at 

 base, leptodermous, oblong and oblongo-cylindraceous, pale yellow- 

 brown with a red mouth, lightly sulcate when dry ; lid conic-rostrate, 

 not annulate, teeth long filiform, equal, purple, on a narrow basal mem- 

 brane, erect or slightly twisted. Male plant simple or divided, bracts 

 ovate, acuminate. 



HAB. Sandy ground near the coast ; S. of England, not common and always 

 sterile. Fr. 5. 



Shoreham beach and Seaford (Borrer 1837) ' Ditten marsh (Wilson 1859). Howth, 

 Portmarnock sands, Dublin and Arklow (Moore 1859) ! ! Malahide and Ross Bay 

 (Carrington 1861) ! Below Staddon heights, Plymouth (Holmes 1867) ! ! Below Menai 

 declivity (Hunt 1868) ! St. Minver, Cornwall (Tellam 1871) ! Hayle sands and Newlyn 

 cliff (Curnow 1872) ! ! Dingle bay (Lindberg 1873) ! ! Wembury and Dartmouth 

 (Holmes 1883) ! ! Mawgar Forth, Cornwall (Holmes 1884) ! ! Southport (Burgess and 

 Holt 1885) ! ! Rabbit warren, St. Anne's on the sea (Cash 1884) ! ! Largo Links 

 (Howie) ! ! 



Readily known by its soft texture and interruptedly comose leaves, with 

 their obliquely ascending basal cells ; in habit it comes nearest M. humilis 

 (HEDW.), and the leaf also resembles that of M. inclinata so closely that it is 

 sometimes very difficult to decide between barren specimens. 



21. MOLLIA NITIDA Lindb. 



Dioicous ; compactly tufted. Leaves linear-lanceolate, acute, the 

 apex generally broken off, circinato-incurved when dry, paler and 

 shining on the back, mucronate with the excurrent nerve. Caps, cylin- 

 dric, teeth small and imperfect. (T. XXXVII, A.) 



SYN. Tortula nitida LINDB. de Tort. 252 (1864), Hedwigia iv, 40 (1865), Journ. Linn. soc. 



Bot. xi, 464 (1871). BRAITHW. Journ. Bot. 1871, p. 294. HOBK. Syn. br. m. 73 (1873). 

 Barbula Alcxandrina LOR. in Abhand. ak. wiss. Berl. 1867, pp. 3235, t. 67. 

 Trichostomum diffractum MITT, in SEEM. Journ. Bot. 1868, p. 98, t. 77, f. 56. 

 Trichostomum Barbula (non SCHWAEG.) LANGE in Bot. Tids. ii, 235 (1868). 

 Barbula nitida GRAVET in Rev. bryol. 1874, p. 19. JURATZ. Laubm. oesterr.-ung. 121 



(1882). 

 Trichostomum nitidum SCHIMP. Synops. 2 ed. 179 (1876). PHILIB. in Rev. bryol. 1878, p. 



27. et 1883, p. 77. HUSNOT Muse. gall. 87, t. 24 (1885). 



Dioicous ; in small dense pulvinate tufts, olivaceous-green or 

 yellowish-green above, rufo-fuscous or blackish at base, stems robust, 

 dichotomous, dense-leaved, tomentose below. Leaves gradually 



