10 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. ']2 



POLYTRICHUM KENIAE Dixon. Smiths. Misc. Coll. 692 : 21. 1918 



Moorland, 13,000 ft.; No. 3411, st. The present specimen agrees 

 well with the plant from Mt. Kenia, except that the sheathing leaf 

 base is not so elongated as in that; I have perhaps overrated the 

 importance of that character in the description. 



HEDWIGIACEAE 

 HEDWIGIA ALBICANS (Web.) Lindb. 

 Nos. 3407, 3409b, 3419; all c. fr. These were growing on tree 

 heaths, an unusual station for what is commonly so rupestral a 

 species. 



BRAUNIA BRACHYTHECA Dixon, subsp. nov. 



(PI. I, fig. 5.) 



Habitus, folia etc., omnino B. diaphanae, capensis, et B. secundac, 

 americanae. Dififert solum thecae forma, latissime elliptica vel siib- 

 globosa, submicrostoma, omnino fere sine coUo, sicca vetusta suh- 

 plicata, ore latiore, suburceolata. 



Hab. : On tree trunks in crater, 13,000-13,500 ft.; Nos. 3398, 

 3413b, 3413c ; all c. fr. Nos. 3407, 3407b, 3417b (p. p.), st. 



The vegetative characters, perichaetial leaves, and seta are so 

 exactly similar to B. diaphana, that I thought at first, in view of the 

 paucity of the capsules on my specimens, that it was possibly a case 

 of malformation of fruit. However, further material from the 

 U. S. National Museum and from Kew entirely confirmed the nor- 

 mality of the structure, and Mr. Sim writes to me that the capsules 

 on his three specimens — eight in all — are identical in the subglobose 

 form, scarcely tapering at neck, all except one being more or less 

 striate when old. In B. diaphana the capsule is narrowly elliptic, or 

 fusiform, being narrowed to the mouth, and with a well-defined 

 very gradually tapering neck (cf. pi. I, fig. 5b). Though often 

 somewhat wrinkled when old, moreover, it has no sign of regular 

 striae. 



Mitten,^ in describing the mosses collected in Central Africa by 

 Bishop Hannington, refers a Kilimanjaro plant " perfectly fruited " 

 to Hedwigia (§Braunia) sccnnda Hook., and raises the question, 

 " Are the B. sciuroidcs of Europe, the B. indica so luxuriant in the 

 Nilgiri Mts., and the Abyssinian B. Schinipcri, really difl:'erent, or 

 are they not most probably slight variations of one wide-spread 



^Journ. Linn. Soc. Bol. 22: 310. 1886. 



