28 



MOSSES WITH A HAND-LENS 



Family 5. 



The Btixbaumia 



BUXBAUMIACEAE. 

 Family4 



HE plants of this interesting family are small, 

 almost or quite stemless, with leaves few or none. 

 They grow on earth or rotten wood. Perichsetial leaves 

 present but often disappearing long before the maturity 

 of the capsule. Capsule very large in proportion to the 



size of the plant, oblique and asymmetric. Calyptra small, conical. 



Peristome single or double, forming a whitish cone. 



A most peculiar and fantastic family, the members of which 



will readily be recognized by a comparison of the figures given 



under the species. 



BUXBAUMIA. 



The drawings speak for themselves. No one who finds the 

 queer looking objects figured here will have any difficulty in iden- 

 tifying them. 



The leaves are few and are clustered at the base of the seta. 

 They entirely disappear before the capsule ripens, so that the ma- 

 ture plant consists of only the roughened seta with a few rhizoids 

 at the base and the queer bug-like capsule. Mrs. Britton calls 



the Buxbaumias " The 

 Humpbacked Elves." To 

 the author they look like 

 bugs on a stick. We have 

 two species in eastern 

 North America, Buxhau- 

 mia aphylla L., and B. 

 indusiata Brid. 



B. APHYLLA has the 

 capsule red-brown, shin- 

 ing, strongly flattened 

 above ; outer peristome 

 of a single series of very 

 short teeth; spores ma- 

 turing from December to 

 June, occasionally found 



Figure 6. mature in September. 



Two different views of Buxbaumia ^, . .. 



aphylla, X ■■■ Two different views, X 4. Plants growmg on SOll. 



