TORREYA 



April, 1915. 

 Vol. 15 No. 4 



BRYOLOGICAL NOTES 



I. ASCHISMA KANSANUM NeW SpECIES, WITH REMARKS UPON p^j^, 



THE Genus i^^)T 



By A. LeRoy Andrews 



The genus Aschisma was created by Lindberg in 1878* for a 

 single species of southern Europe and northern Africa which 

 had hitherto passed as a Phascum. In the field of distribution 

 of this species {Aschisma carnioliciim (Weber & Mohr) Lindberg), 

 North America has for some time been erroneously included on 

 the basis of a single collection made by Hall in Kansas. Study 

 of Hall's specimen as represented in the herbarium of the New 

 York Botanical Garden has shown me that it represents an en- 

 tirely different and apparently as yet unrecognized species. The 

 American plant which grows gregariously with abundant per- 

 sistent protonema stands somewhat higher (up to 2 mm.), the 

 dry plants having leaves somewhat subsecund and rather con- 

 cealing the capsule from view. The leaves are longer than in 

 the European plant (up to 1.5 mm.), of different shape, from a 

 long narrow clasping base of very thin-walled hyaline cells 

 widening to well up near the apex, giving a rather spatulate or 

 obovate efifect to the leaf as a whole. The leaf shows a remark- 

 ably broad costa, up to 70 ii at the base and even 25 ju in its 

 excurrent mucro, and in section at least 4 entirely included guide- 

 cells with stereid bands both dorsally and ventrally. The cells 

 of the leaf-blade, apart from the long narrow very thin-walled 

 ones of the basal part, are rather thick-walled, the lumen appear- 

 ing roundish or of somewhat irregular shape, the cell-diameter 



* Utkast natiirl. grupper. 28. 

 [No. 3, Vol. 15 of ToRREYA, Comprising pp. 41-62, was issued 15 April 1915.] 



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