FUNARIACE^.] 124 [Amblyodon. 



Discelium nudum BRID. Bry. univ. i, 366 (1826). BR. SCH. Bry. eur. Fasc. 29-30, p. 4, 

 t. i (1846). C. MUELL. in Bot. Zeit. 1843, p. 5, Synops. i, 149 (1849). WILS. Bry. 

 br. 286, t. 14 (1855). SCHIMP. Synops. 312 (1860), 2 ed. 372. BERK. Handb. br. 

 m. 167, t. 15, f. 6 (1863). HOBK. Syn. br. m. 133 (1873). HUSN. Mouss. nord-ouest 

 114 (1873), Muse. gall. 211, t. 57 (1888). MILDE Bry. siles. 188 (1869). LESQ. JAMES 

 Moss. N. Amer. 188 (1884). 



Dioicous ; plants annual, nearly stemless, attached to green 

 protonema. Leaves few, imbricated sheathing, ovato-lanceolate, entire, 

 with only faint traces of a nerve, cells large lax hyaline, oblongo- 

 hexagonal . Caps, very small, on a long flexuose red seta, pachydermous, 

 reddish-brown, subglobose, cernuous on a suddenly bent neck ; calyptra 

 narrow, subulate, fugacious, split up on one side, contracted at base 

 and often left behind adhering to the seta ; annulus large, subpersistent, 

 of two rows of cells, lid convex-conic ; teeth 16, red lanceolate 

 striate, cloven half way from the base upward. Male plants minute, 

 gemmiform, nestling on the protonema, antheridia few, with subclavate 

 paraphyses. 



HAB. Clay banks, rare. Fr. 2 3. 



About Manchester (Caley) \ \ By the Tay near Perth (Don). Shibden and Todmorden, 

 Yorks. (Nowell). Marple, Cheshire (Whitchead). Boggart hole Clough, and Haughton 

 Dale, Lancashire. Ram's Clough, Ashton-under-Lyne. Berrow bridge, Bolton 

 (J. Sims 1888) ! ! Kirby Bank, Cleveland (Rev. J. Dalton, yun.) 



This curious moss is clearly most allied to Funaria by the cell structure 

 of the leaves, although the form of the capsule at once reminds us of 

 Catoscopium, yet the broad annulus is also Funarioid, while the teeth of 

 peristome are rather sui generis, though resembling those of Trematodon. The 

 green protonema covers the clay banks where it grows, in autumn, and this 

 turns red and withers away after the fruit is formed, and in spring the 

 whole surface generally crumbles away and disappears until the following 

 autumn. 



Subf. 2. Amblyodontese. Stem elongated, branched. Capsule 

 asymmetric, pyriform ; peristome double, outer of 16 short erect obtuse 

 teeth, inner much longer of 16 lanceolate fissile teeth on a short membrane. 

 Calyptra narrow, cucullate. 



AMBLYODON P. Beauv. 



Prodr. 41 (1805). 



Calyptra very fugacious, cucullate, narrow. Caps, pyriform, 

 asymmetrice ; peristome of 16 short lanceolate obtuse erect teeth, 

 endostome a short sulcate membrane with 16 lanceolate subulate teeth 

 much longer and splitting in the middle. Leaves Funarioid in 

 structure. Der. a/*/3Av S obtuse, oSovs a tooth. 



