The Genus Buxbaumia 



Buxbaumia aphylla, L. See Plate XX. 



Habit and habitat. Small stemless plants growing on earth 

 and decayed wood. Coloured patches of a peculiar green-black 

 felt appear at first, and on this felt, which under the microscope 

 is shown to be a web of minute-branched threads (protonema), 

 young plants, minute and spherical, appear. The moss has an 

 annoying habit of disappearing from a station so that one can- 

 not rely upon finding it the second time in the same locality. 

 This sporadic habit and the scanty numbers of this moss invest 

 its discovery with a charm known only to 

 one who has collected it. The young spore- 

 cases appear early in September. During 

 the winter they remain green and with the 

 warm days of early spring begin growth 

 again and the colour changes from green to 

 brown. By the middle of March the plants 

 are ready to disperse their spores. 



Name. The specific name aphylla is a B.aphyOa. Leaf, 

 compound of a, privative, without, and <f>v\\ov, a leaf. 



History. In 1712, J. C. Buxbaum, a German botanist, dis- 

 covered the curious plant on which the genus was founded. He 

 collected it near Astrakhan, on the banks of the Volga, and says, 

 "I wished to make it into a new genus and name it after my 

 father, but called to mind the fox, who was derided by the others, 

 because he begged the grapes, not for himself, but for his sick 

 mother." It was for a time regarded as a fungus; but in 1741 

 Johann Dillenius correctly referred it to the mosses. Schimdel 

 made a careful study of it in 1758, and Linnaeus also wrote of it. 



Plant (gametophyte) . Stemless, the male plants solitary in 

 red-brown felt at the base of the female plant. 



Leaves. Extremely minute, oval or palm-shaped, soon disap- 

 pearing; margin in shreds, or coarsely saw-toothed; cells, loose, 

 colourless, long six-sided; leaves of the plant only two and with- 

 out a shredded margin. 



Habit of flowering. Male and female flowers on 

 separate plants (dioicous). 

 Veil (calyptra). Conical. 



Spore -case. Inclined, boat-shaped, and 

 depressed above, swollen below, smooth, greenish- 



B. aphylla. , _ , , ... , , 



Veil. brown; coat, firm, glossy, and thickened on the 



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