66 



A. occultiim {Phascum occultum Carl Miiller).* Dr. Roth very 

 kindly sent me a bit of this species from Ule's Bryotlieca hrasiliensis, 

 which though a somewhat similar plant is obviousl}' specifically 

 quite distinct from both A. carniolicum and A. kansanum. 

 Theriot added another species from New Caledonia, A. neo- 

 caledoniaim.j A description and figure were later furnished by 

 Roth. J A specimen in Theriot's exsiccati {Musci et hepaticae 

 Novae- Caledoniae, no. 126) shows a plant with no particular 

 affinities with the other species placed under Aschisma, but 

 clearly referable to Astomiim. 



I have included our North American species in Aschisma not 

 from inner conviction, but from disinclination to remove it ir- 

 responsibly from the place where it has for some time reposed. 

 As a matter of fact I cannot regard it as naturally congeneric 

 with the European species, constituting the type of this genus; 

 it is however not referable to any other genus of cleistocarpous 

 mosses. As to the European Aschisma I am not fully satisfied 

 that its natural affinities are with Astomum as Lindberg and 

 Brotherus place it.§ Lindberg was at any rate obviously right 

 in separating it from Phascum and the latter genus as left still 

 seems to me a very heterogeneous one. Loeske|| has already 

 separated Pottiella from the European aggregate, but the exotic- 

 species have not been adequately dealt with. The new North 

 American species should probably form the type of a new genus, 

 but so long as the complex of moss-forms left by Brotherus in 

 Pottiaceae is phylogenetically so little understood as at present 

 I have not cared to add to the confusion. 



It is somewhat remarkable that the plant has not been re- 

 discovered since Hall found it, but our cleistocarpous mosses 

 have hardly been given the attention they deserve. Hall's 

 locality "prairies of western Kansas" is also a trifle vague, but 

 the addition of " silicious soil " may help in further search. What 

 is meant is a soil containing quartz in larger or smaller grains, 



* Op. cit., I, 172; pi. XVIII, fig. I. 



t Bull, de I'Acad. de Geogr. Bot., 191 1, p. 4. (I have not seen this publication.) 

 1 Hedwigia, LIII, 93; pi. II, fig. 5. 1913. 



§ Loeske has also (Zur Morphologie und Sj'stematik der Laubmoose, 74 

 1910) given it a different place in the vicinity of Phascum. 

 i! Verh. bot. Ver. Prov. Brandenburg 47: 322: 1906. 



