Cephaloziella 65 



Hab. on the ground, on stones, on decaying wood, or overrunning 

 other liverworts and mosses, but always in a humid site, whether shaded 

 or exposed. Probably dispersed throughout the north temperate and 

 arctic zones; in the southern, and between the tropics, replaced by 

 closely allied but distinct species. It abounds equally in plains and 

 in mountains , but rarely ascends above the subalpine region. 



The angles of the perianth in this species are very rarely reduced to 3, but are more 

 usually 4, 5, or even 6. When only 3, the third angle is invariably poetical; and 

 •when there are 4 angles, the fourth is usually added on to one of the lateral faces, 

 making the perianth asymmetrically quadrangular, or trapeziform, on the section. 

 Very rarely indeed is the fourth angle medi-antical, and the perianth symmetrically 

 prismatic. When both lateral faces are keeled along the middle, the perianth becomes 

 5-gonal, with the widest face in front; and if this face also show a medial ridge, 

 then the perianth is 6-gonal. Examples of all these forms of perianth I have seen in 

 the same tuft, in specimens gathered by myself in Stockton Forest, and in others from 

 near Warrington, gathered by the late Mr. Wilson. 



The male and female plants often grow so interlaced that, unless great care be 

 used in disentangling them, a male plant may seem organically united to a female 

 when in reality it adheres only by its radicles. I have, however, twice found a truly 

 monoicous plant, once in specimens from Woolston Moss (w. wilson), and again in 

 others from Witherslack, Westmorland (g. stabler); although every other plant in 

 the tufts was unisexual. I look on these instances as reversions to a prior bisexual 

 condition, such as occasionally occurs in every dioicous plant sufficiently well known ; 

 and not as contravening the normal dioicity of the species. 



After reiterated examination of all the materials in my possession, I can only fall 

 back on my original opinion (expressed in my paper on Teesdale Mosses, Ann. Nat. 

 Hist. 1843, and again in that on the Mosses of the Pyrenees, 1849), ^i^. that all the 

 forms agreeing in the dioicous inflorescence and the other characters above detailed, 

 belong to but one species ; especially that the presence of stipules — formerly relied on 

 as the main distinction of C. Starkii from C. divaricata — is, taken by itself, no 

 character at all. Gottsche's specimens of yww^. Starkii, from Rolandsgrube, near 

 Hamburg, are slipuliferous throughout; while those from Luhrup have stipules only 

 in the involucres. Similar, and intermediate forms, I possess from various parts of 

 our islands, gathered by myself, Wilson, and others. 



A tufted form of C. divaricata, from Stockton Forest, has the fertile stems 

 thickened upwards, and narrow obtuse leaf-lobes; there are also underleaves. But 

 in this form, as well as in original specimens of jfung. Grimsulana Jack (whose 

 chief character is said to be the obtuse-lobed leaves) acute lobes also occur ; and as 

 there is no other tangible difference, I can only regard them forms of C. divaricata. 



