44 WE IS SI A. 



5. IV. Starkeana ; stems very short; leaves ovate, with an ex- 



current nerve ; capsule ovate, erect ; lid conical ; teeth of 

 the peristome subulate, acute. (TAB. XIV.) 



W. Starkeana. Hedw. St. Cr. v. 3. t33. Bryum minutum. ##*. 

 Grimmia Starkeana. Engl Bot. #. 1490. 



HAB. Banks and fields. 



That this is the Weissia Starkeana of Hedwig's Slirpes 

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

 lowing species has been frequently mistaken for it, thespe-- 

 cimens in our possession received from various friends 

 will clearly testify. In this however the teeth are very ap- 

 parent on the removal of the operculum from a fully farmed 

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

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

 sometimes inclining a little to lanceolate, acute, their mar- 

 gins slightly recurved, their nerve excurrent and forming 

 an apiculus, 



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



nerve ; capsule ovate, erect ; lid conical ; teeth of the pe- 

 ristome short, broad, and obtuse. (TAB. XIV.) 



HAB. Fields and on gravelly banks. 



Except by its smaller size and paler colour we know of 

 no means of distinguishing this moss from the preceding one 

 but by an examination of the peristome; and this is so re 

 markably 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 consists of 1 6 broad 

 and very obtuse, somewhat membranaceous, whitish teeth,, 

 extremely faintly striated, and resembling in all particulars 

 the peristome of IV. 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. 



It may be remarked that in the general growth and habit, 

 and in the form and structure of the leaves, there is the 

 greatest similarity between the present species, W. Star- 

 keana, and IVdanceolata^ and their only essential differences 

 are to be looked for in the operculum and teeth of the pe- 

 ristome. 



7. W. lanceolata } stems somewhat elongated; leaves ovate, 



with an excurrent nerve; almost piliferous ; capsule ovate $ 

 lid obliquely rostrate. (TAB. XIV.) 



