372 Mr. R. Spruce on the Musci and Hepatice of the Pyrenees. 
C. M., and Voitia, Hornsch., form a distinct tribe, under the name 
of Ephemeree ; but, considered as to the sum of their characters, I 
apprehend they must be united to Funariacee. ‘The transition to 
recognized members of the latter family is in fact so gradual that it 
is impossible to indicate where the break should be made. Ephe- 
merum patens, for example, is undistinguishable except by very mi- 
nute examination from Aphanorhegma - serrata, Sullivant (in Gray’s 
‘ Manual of the Botany of the Northern United States,’ p. 647), which 
on its side is scarcely generically distinct from Physcomitrium. And 
if, by the almost universal consent of bryologists, gymnostomous 
mosses are no longer to form a separate tribe, but are to be distri- 
buted among those peristomatous tribes and genera to which they 
have in all their other characters a perfect affinity, why should we 
accord a greater favour to astomous mosses, which repose on an 
equally negative character for their separation? In other words, if 
there be no acknowledged tribe of Gymnocarpi, why should there be 
one of Cleistocarpi? This query is rendered more unanswerable by 
the consideration that as there are individual mosses (e. g. Encalypta 
vulgaris) which unite in themselves the characters of Gymnostomi and 
Peristomati, so there are other individuals which equally unite the 
characters of Gymnostomi and Astomi; I need only instance Phascum 
rostellatum, Brid., which has in some instances a persistent, in others 
a deciduous operculum, and is thus in itself both cleistocarpous and 
stegocarpous : if the former be considered its normal condition, it 
should be (according to our existing artificial systems) a Phascum ; 
if the latter, a Hymenostomum! 
I may in this place take occasion to remark on the very great ra- 
rity of Phascoid and other annual mosses in the Pyrenees. Above the 
montose zone, I did not observe a single annual moss, for Funaria hy- 
grometrica cannot strictly be considered such. There is the same 
peculiarity in arctic countries, as for instance in Lapland, where ac- 
cording to Wahlenberg the Piasca and the smaller species of Tortula 
and Gymnostomum (i. e. Pottia) are altogether wanting! Contrast 
with this the following list of Phasca, abundant in cultivated ground 
near Montpellier in the autumnal and early winter months, which I 
owe to the kindness of Mr. Bentham; Phascum avillare, bryoides, 
carniolicum, crispum, curvicollum, cuspidatum, Flerkeanum, muticum, 
pachycarpum and rectum. 
Tribus 17. Spracunacra, Bryol. Europ. 
33. Tayloria, Hook. 
205. 7. serrata, Hedw. Spec. Muse. t. 8 (sub Splachno) ; Br. 
Europ. Tayloria, p. 6. t. 1; M. P. 156. 
Hab. Z, P. c. in monte Crabioules et ad Jacum Espingo, juxta 
pastorum ‘tuguria, terrestris. 
Var. y. tenuis, Br. Europ. J. c. t. 2; M.P. 157. Splachnum 
tenue, Dicks. Cr. Fase. 2: p. 2. 
Hab. Z, P. oce. supra ligna putrida in valle Jéret. 
PLATE eee SET Re EA, a 
