212 WILLIAMS: THE GENUS DESMATODON 
4. DESMATODON PLINTHOBIUS Sull. & Lesq. Musci.Bor. Am. 94. 
1856 
Desmatodon neomexicanus Sull. & Lesq. Musci Bor. Am. 95. 
1856. 
Dioicous, the male plants very similar to, and mixed with, the 
fertile tufts, the flowers terminal or lateral by innovations from 
just below the apex; the inner perigonial leaves short, acute, with 
pale, smooth cells extending two thirds way up the leaf, the an- 
theridia often numerous, about 0.33 mm. long, with abundant, 
filiform paraphyses: fertile plants in compact cushions, with some- 
what branching stems, 3-4 mm. or rarely 1 cm. high; leaves in- 
curved-imbricate when dry, erect-spreading when moist, from 
oblong-lanceolate to narrowly lingulate with apex acute or 
rounded, those on lower stem with blade less than 1 mm. long with 
short point, on upper stem the blade up to 2.5 mm. long with a 
flexuous, smooth hair-point often of nearly equal length, the mar- 
gins entire and mostly revolute from near the apex to below the 
middle; costa papillose on the back in upper part of leaf, in cross- 
section ‘showing about four guide-cells with one or sometimes two 
rows of cells nearly as large on ventral side and on dorsal side a 
large stereid band with outer cells scarcely differentiated; cells of 
upper part of leaf obscure, somewhat four-sided, not elongate, 
about 8» wide, covered on both sides with very small, irregular, 
often C-shaped papillae, those of lower part rectangular, pale, 
smooth, up to 16 4 wide by 40 long; perichaetial leaves scarcely 
differentiated ; seta erect, 6-12 mm. long; capsule oblong to nearly 
cylindric, erect, up to 3 mm. long without lid; the lid rather ob- 
tusely high-conic, 0.5-0.7 mm. long, the two or three basal rows 
of cells not elongate, those about one third above the base two 
or three times longer than wide, in slightly oblique rows; peristome 
teeth pale, densely papillose, erect, mostly very irregular, some- 
times scarcely projecting above the annulus, or longer and quite 
regularly divided into two forks from a low basilar membrane; 
annulus large, two or three rows of cells in height; calyptra cucul- 
late, long-beaked, descending about half way down the capsule; 
spores smooth, about 8y in diameter. [Fic. 4.] 
TYPE LOCALITY: Charleston, South Carolina. 
DIsTRIBUTION: Pennsylvania to Alabama and westward to 
Missouri and Texas. 
ExsIccaTAE: Sull. & Lesq. Musci Bor. Am. 94, 95 (as D. 
neomexicanus) and ed. 2, 123; Aust. Musci App. 493. 
ILLUSTRATION: Sull. Ic. Musc. pl. 3o. 
