METEOEIACEAE. 493 



lar; branches stouter, usually simple, about 2 cm. long, or pinnately branched, 

 up to 4 cm. long, with short branchlets; leaves crowded, imbricated in 5 ranks, 

 concave and keeled, up to 1.5 mm. long by 0.5 mm. wide; vein narrow, ending 

 in the flat acuminate tip; margins minutely toothed almost to the base; alar 

 cells smaller, dense, rectangular; upper cells linear with projecting or ob- 

 scurely papillose end walls; perichaetial leaves minute, erect, appressed, ecos- 

 tate and narrowly acuminate. Dioicous, the antheridial plants unknown, as 

 well as the fruit; usually propagating by septate brood-bodies, borne in clus- 

 ters at the bases of the leaves. 



Small depauperate unbranched plants have been found in coppices of New Provi- 

 dence and Abaco : — Florida ; Louisiana ; Cuba ; Jamaica ; Hispaniola ; Virgin Islands 

 to South America. Pieeella. 



Family 10. METEOEIACEAE Fleischer. 



Mbteoeium Family. 



Plants mostly of moist mountain regions, and of tropical and subtrop- 

 ical distribution, usually epiphytic and characterized by their creeping 

 stems and long pendent, simple or rarely branched habit, sometimes very 

 glossy, with distichous leaves ; base usually regular and broad, often auricu- 

 late ; costa single, ending below the apex ; cells smooth or papillose. Usually 

 dioicous. Pedicel immersed or exserted; calyptra smaU, often hairy; lid 

 generally beaked; peristome double, the inner sometimes perfect with cilia 

 but more often imperfect with a short basal membrane; annulus lacking. 

 A family of mostly tropical mosses with about 10 genera and 327 species. 



1. PAPriiLAEXA. C. Muell. Angstr. Oefv. K. Sv. Vet.-Ak. 



Foerh. 33': 34. 1876. 



[Neckera Section Papillaeia C. Muell. Syn. Muse. 2: 134. 1851.] 



Plants growing on rocks or trees, usually in dense pale green or dark mats. 

 Stems slender, often pendent or creeping, branching irregularly. Leaves broad 

 and often auricled at base, tapering to an acuminate or subulate tip ; vein single, 

 rarely percurrent or lacking; margins entire or serrulate; basal and median 

 cells sometimes smooth, others usually papillose with several small papillae in 

 the median line of the narrow cells; perichaetial leaves usually longer and 

 narrower, erect. Dioicous. Pedicel exserted or immersed, straight and 

 smooth; capsule immersed or exserted, small and ovoid; calyptra small, cam- 

 panulate, hairy; lid conic-beaked; annulus absent; peristome double; teeth 

 lanceolate and papillose; endostome hyaline and papillose from a short basal 

 membrane, with or without cilia; spores papillose. About 70 species are 

 known, mostly fromi tropical' regions of both hemispheres. [Named in refer- 

 ence to the papUlose leaves.] Type species: Neckera capiUaris 0. Muell. 



1. Papillaiia nigrSscens (Sw.) Jaeger, Adumb. 1: 169. 1875-76. 



Sypnum nigrescens Sw. Prodr. 141. 1788. 



Plants in dark brown mats. Young branches green; stems often 15-20 

 em. long, branching pinnately; branches short and irregular, usually simple, 

 and only 1-2 cm. long, but sometimes 4^5 cm. ending in clusters of slender 

 brittle branchlets, which propagate this species. Leaves crowded, erect- 



