436 



nSSIDENTACEAE. 



3. Fissidens Garberi Lesq. & James. Garber's Fissi- 

 DENS. (Fig. 476.) Plants very small, about 1" high, dark 

 green; stems erect or decumbent; leaves 5-6 pairs, but on 

 the sterile stems occasionally 15-16 pairs, lanceolate, acumi- 

 nate, upper the longest; vein ending in the apex or percur- 

 rent; margins not bordered except at the base of the upper- 

 most pair of leaves; cells small, dense, papillose. Pedicel 

 terminal, short, erect; capsule small, erect; lid comc-beaked ; 

 peristome red, spirally thickened at apex. 



On moist rocks in shade, usually in gulleys or caves ; also 

 in the southern United States and the Bahamas, usually on 

 limestone rocks. One of the most puzzling and variable of the 

 smaller species of this genus probably including several other 

 closely allied described species from Cuba, Porto Rico, Haiti, 

 San Domingo, Jamaica, Guadaloupe and Trinidad. 



Family 4. CALYMPERACEAE C. Muell. 



Calymperes Family. 



Plants usually growing in dense dark green cushions on trees in 

 shade, seldom fruiting but often propagating by brood-bodies, growing 

 in ^clusters from the tips of specially modified leaves. Stems mostly erect 

 and sparingly branched. Leaves often crowded at the ends of the 

 branches, erect or spreading, broad and clasping at base, lanceolate or con- 

 tracted into a spathulate apex ; margins entire or serrate often with a band 

 of elongated submarginal cells; basal cells clear, smooth, upper cells small, 

 round, often papillose. Pedicel terminal, erect usually exserted; calyptra 

 cucullate or campanulate; lid long-beaked; peristome single of 16 short 

 teeth. A family of mostly tropical mosses, containing 2 genera and about 

 313 species. 



1. SYRRHOPODON Schwaegr. 



Differing from the characters of the family only in the often specially 

 modified margins of the leaves which are either thickened or double; the 

 calyptra is conic-campanulate. [Greek, in reference to the united teeth of 

 the peristome.] Mostly tropical or subtropical species of which 215 have been 

 described. Type species: Calymperes Gardneri Hook. 



