353 



#rigiual <Mxticlt$. 



t 



MUSCI PBiETERITI; 



SIVE DE MUSCI NONNULLIS ADHUC NEGLECTIS, PRJETERVISIS VEL CONFUSIS 



NUNC RECOGNITIS. 



AUCTORE ElCARDO SPRUCE. 



(Continued from p. 295.) 



3. Plagiothecium denticulatum (L.), Schunp. 



Hypnum denticui 'utum , L. 



Although mosses under this name abound in our herbaria— so 

 that, in the aggregate, it cannot be said to have been "passed 

 over" — some confusion has been caused by one form of it having 

 been taken as the type of the species by certain authors, and a very 

 different form by other authors. To introduce what I have to say 

 of these two leading forms, or subspecies, it is needful to speak first 

 of the closely-allied PL sykaticum. . 



It was the late Mr. Wilson (in litt. circ. 1843) who first insisted 

 on the dioicous inflorescence of H. sykaticum, taken m conjunction 

 with the usually lurid and opaque foliage in the dry state— as con- 

 trasted with the shining leaves of H. denticidatum, both tresh and 

 dried,— the wider leaf-cells, and the rostrate lid as sufficing to 

 separate the two species ; which had heretofore been either con- 

 founded, as in ' Muscologia Britannica,' or kept apart by very 

 insufficient characters. I at once became a convert to his views, 

 and in 1843 (or 1844) sent specimens of both species to the ate 

 M. Bruch, of Zweibriicken. In reply he sent me two jell-filled 

 packets, the one (a) labelled - Hypnum sykaticum &cliwgi., flo e sc. 

 monoica (nee dioica). In sylvis ad terram ; the .other ( ) 

 « HypmJ dentiadatum, L. : est Hypni sykaW, forma minoi 

 caps lis brevioribus. Ad arborum radices". ***£**•! 

 found two varieties of H. denticidatum and ^^^Inside^a 

 Uctcm ; in b, copious specimens of what was £«y5*™SS 

 typical H. dcnLulatum in the « Bryologia Eim>p*a, wrfh a ^ * 

 tfsykaticinn. I picked out of these P^fte»t^«f each pec es 



returned 



ana returned nw f^-- whether they h ad sufficed to con- 

 no remark on them 1 nevei Anew >\u™ ^S . . nf ^Viovflv after 

 Vines him of the distinctness of the two ^P^£^J^ 

 his decease a narcel of mosses received from M. Schimpu contained 

 ms decease, a paicei u observation " Ab H. daitmdato 



specimens of H.sylraticum, wiin m "" BC1 



Horesc. dioica re vera distinctum. 



distinguishable from 



n. s. vol. 9. [Decembek, 1880.] 



