50 THE JOURNAL OF BOTANY 
nerve slender; cells very lax. Male flowers on slender branches, 
numerous, fuscous. Capsule borne on a slender and soft pallid 
e 
apophysis oval, slightly larger than the capsule, at first green, finally 
blackish-brown ; stomata numerous, in part tinged with red. Peri- 
stome-teeth rather small, subequidistant, yellow. Columella not 
exserted from the empty capsule. 
This delicate moss bears some resemblance to slender forms of 
S. sphericum, but is readily distinguished by the smaller capsules 
and more compact tufts; the leaves also differ considerably in 
outline from those of S. sphericum, being much wider at the base, 
and the apex is entire or at most faintly uneven, whilst that of 
S. sphe@ricum is generally distinctly serrulate; the nerve is usuall 
form of the peristome. All the other characters, however, such as 
the softness of all the parts of the plant, the loose tissue of the 
leaves, the form of the calyptra, and the elongation of the seta 
subsequent to the dispersal of the spores, are (in Schimper’s opinion) 
in favour of including it in the genus Splachnum. 
e peristome resembles in form that of J'etraplodon mnioides, 
except always that soon after the fall of the operculum the teeth - 
become equally distant from each other. On account of this cha- 
str - Salmon writes: “If the peristome of 7. Worms- 
kioldwi is compared with that of 8. sphericum, it will be noticed that 
the teet t rmer are much larger and more solid, have an 
entire outline, and, viewed from the inside, have a number of very 
delicate vertical and oblique lines dividing the tooth into irregularly 
sha —only 
line from the projecting plates; viewed from the inside, they are 
entirely without the vertical or oblique lines.”” On account of these 
peristome characters, Mr. Salmon 
lodon, of which genus Lindberg (Musci Scand. p. 1 fon tke 
ee (Haplodon), and this he ge have ad BoE ae 
a . pted. 
e columella does not project beyond the orifice of the capsule, 
