66 HANDBOOK OF MOSSES. 



Tribe XIV. Polytrichea. Plants woody ; leaves thick, 

 lamellate inside (i.e. with longitudinal folds) ; peristome 

 simple, of thirty-two or sixty-four solid, tongue-shaped teeth, 

 adhering to the membranous enlarged top of the columella 

 (the central portion of the capsule around ivhich the spores are 

 placed}. 



This is a fine group of mosses, containing many noble- 

 looking species, very distinct and easily recognised, includes 

 Polytrichum (fig. 22), Pogonatum (fig. 31), Oligotrichum, 

 and Atrichum (fig. 16). 



Tribe XV. Buxbaumiea. Stemless plants with large 

 oblique ventricose capsules ; peristome double, the outer 

 rudimentary, the inner membranous, twisted into a sixteen 

 to thirty-two plicate or plaited truncate cone. 



FIG. 36. Fontinalis antipyretica, i, portion of plant natural size ; a a, cladocar- 

 pous fruiting branch. 2, the same enlarged ; a, lid ; , capsule. 



A small group nearly related to the last, containing only 

 the two genera JDiphiscium and Buxbaumia. 



SERIES II. CLADOCARPI. Fruit terminal on short lateral 

 branches (fig. 36). 



Tribe XVI. Fontinalece. Aquatic plants rooting at the 

 base only, floating ; leaves thin ; flowers dioecious ; calyptra 

 split on one side ; teeth of the double peristome linear ; inner 

 membrane divided into long cilia forming a latticed cone by 

 transverse partitions, or the cilia free, longer than the teeth, 

 appendiculate. 



A small group comprising Fontinalis and Dichelyma. 



SERIES III. PLEUROCARPI. Fruit lateral; flowers in 

 axillary buds. 



