Weissia.] APLOPERISTOMI. 79 



5. W. Starkeana ; stems very short, leaves ovate with an excur- 



rent nerve, capsule ovate erect, lid conical, teeth of the peri- 

 stome subulate acute. (TAB. XIV.) 



Weissia Starkeana. Hedw. St. Cr. v. 3. t. 23. Hook. Fl. Scot. 

 P. II. p. 130. Schwaegr. Suppl. v. 1. p. 68. Brid. Meth. p. 44. Arn. 

 Disp. Muse. p. 24. 



Grimmia Starkeana. Smith, Fl. Brit. p. 1186. Engl Bot. t. 1490. 

 Bryum minutum. Dicks. 



HAB. Banks and fields, in the middle and south of Britain. 

 That this is the Weissia /Starkeana of Hedwig's Stirpes, 

 there cannot, we think, be the least doubt ; but that the follow- 

 ing species has been frequently mistaken for it, the specimens 

 in our possession, received from various friends, will clearly 

 testify. In the present plant, however, the teeth are very ap- 

 parent on the removal of the operculum from a fully formed 

 capsule, nor are they so fugacious as the peristomes of many 

 mosses of this family. The leaves are somewhat patent, ovate, 

 sometimes inclining a little to lanceolate, acute, their margins 

 slightly recurved, their nerve excurrent, and forming an 

 apiculus. 



6. W. qffinis ; stems very short, leaves ovate with an excurrent 



nerve, capsule ovate erect, lid conical, teeth of the peristome 



short broad obtuse. (TAB. XIV.) 



Weissia affinis. Hooker and Tayl. Muse. Brit. ed. 1. p. 44. Arn. 



Disp. Muse. p. 24. 



HAB. Fields and on gravelly banks. 



Except by its smaller size and paler colour, we know of no 

 means whereby to discriminate this moss from the preceding one 

 but by an examination of the peristome, and this is so strikingly 

 different in the two, and each is so constant in its characters, 

 that we think ourselves fully warranted in making two species 

 of them. The peristome of W. qffinis consists of 16 broad and 

 very obtuse, somewhat membranaceous, whitish teeth, ex- 

 tremely faintly striated, and resembling, in all particulars, the 

 peristome of W. trichodes, hereafter to be described ; but in that 

 plant the peristome first forms a horizontal, membranous ring 

 about the mouth of the capsule, and then rolls back into 16 

 teeth, whereas in our plant we have always seen the peristome 

 to be erect. 



