60 MOSSES WITH A HAND-LENS 



AN ILLUSTRATED GLOSSARY OF BRYOLOGI- 

 CAL TERMS, 



THIS is not intended to be an exhaustive glossary of botanical 

 terms, but a glossary of those terms which are either con- 

 fined to bryological works or are used in a somewhat dif- 

 ferent meaning when applied to mosses. Thus the common 

 terms descriptive of leaves are omitted, except acumen and a 

 few others that are used in a peculiar or unusual way by some 

 authors. Very few terms are here defined that are sufficiently 

 well explained in the common phanerogamic botanies like Gray, 

 Wood, or Britton and Brown. 



Braithwaite's British Moss Flora, Lesquereux and James' 

 Manual, and Dixon and Jameson's Handbook of British Mosses 

 have been largely consulted and an attempt has been made to de- 

 termine the meaning of each term according to the usage of all 

 the authors accessible. 



For most of the cuts we are indebted to the kindness of Mr. 

 H. N. Dixon, Mr. Jameson, and their publishers, who have very 

 kindly allowed us the use of the cuts in their Handbook of British 

 Mosses, a work which should be in the hands of every moss stu- 

 dent whether English or American. Terms whose meaning can 

 be made sufficiently clear by definition are not illustrated as a 

 rule. In order to use the same figure to illustrate two or more 

 definitions without having definition and figure too far apart, 

 the glossary is arranged alphabetically under topics such as 

 leaves, capsules, etc. The first section consists of those terms 

 which apply to leaves. 



TERMS USED IN DESCRIBING LEAVES. 



Acumen, the gradually tapering narrow point of an acumi- 

 nate leaf. (Fig. 2, b. ) 



Acuminate, a term usually applied to leaves that gradually 

 taper to a narrow point. A few recent writers use terms as ap- 

 plying only to those leaves that are not uniformly narrowed and 

 limit the term acumen to that part of the apex beyond the point 

 where the narrowing begins to be less abrupt. According to 

 these authors a leaf uniformly narrowed would not be acuminate, 

 no matter how slender the apex. The author has followed this 

 usage to some extent in previous writings, but general usage does 

 not seem to sanction this restriction of the term. 



