GRIMMIACE^E.J 59 [Zygodon. 



Dioicous; in large soft swollen tufts, bright yellow-green above, 

 ferruginous below, radiculose. Stems slender, i 4 in. high, fragile, 

 dichotomous, fastigiate. Leaves gradually accrescent and more 

 crowded upward, from an erect base, patent, ascending at point, 

 when dry obliquely incumbent and twisted at apex, lanceolate, acute, 

 acutely carinate, very densely covered with short bipartite papillae ; 

 margin plane, minutely crenulate, nerve vanishing below apex, 

 subterete. very prominent at back; cells at base longish rectangular, 

 hyaline, above roundish-quadrate, small, opake. Perich. bracts paler, 

 subvaginant beyond the middle, acuminate, smooth ; seta ^-in. high, 

 pale yellow, twisted to right when dry. Caps, erect, small ovate-oblong, 

 with a swelling neck, leptodermous, pale ferruginous with a glossy 

 rufous mouth, smooth when dry and empty ; annulus narrow ; lid 

 as long or longer than capsule, obliquely rostrate, subulate. Male 

 plants more slender, the infl. gemmiform, bracts ovate, acuminate, 

 faintly nerved. 

 HAB. Schistose rocks about streams in mountains. Fr. 8. 



Frequent in Scotland, Wales and N. of England. Rare in Ireland ; 

 Bantry and Galtee-more, Tipperary. 



Var. /3. pellucida (Wils.). 



Plants more robust, densely compact and radiculose, pale yellow-green ; 

 leaves longer, broader flatter, with larger cells, which are pellucid and 

 almost free from papillae. 



SYN. Ancectanglum pdlucidum WILS. MSS. 



HAB. Kilblane near Inverary, $ (Wilson 1836) ! ! 



This riioss has taxed the powers of all bryologists to find a satisfactory 

 position for it in our systems, combining as it does various characters pointing 

 to widely different groups. Although the inflorescence proceeds from a 

 lateral bud, it has nothing in common with pleurocarpous mosses, but its 

 habit much resembles that of Barbula curvirostris, as also does the fruit, and 

 the leaves are equally akin to those of Ancect. Mongeotii in structure. The 

 var. pellucida is a larger plant in every way, with laxer leaves, and may be 

 distinct. 



6. ZYGODON Hook. Tayl. 



Muse. brit. 70 (1818). 



Plants dichotomous, fastigiate branched, crowded and interwoven 

 with radicles. Leaves spathulate-lanc., very chlorophyllose above, 

 hyaline at base. Caps, on an elongated pedicel, oval-oblong, with a 

 soft swelling neck, less distinctly striate ; peristome single or double 



