MOSSES WITH A HAND-LENS 



29 



B. INDUSIATA has the capsule green or yellow, dull, little 

 flattened above; outer peristome of four concentric rows of 

 linear teeth, of which the outer row is short and the inner 

 more than half the length of the cone; spores maturing a month 

 or so earlier than in the preceding. Plants growing on very 

 rotten wood, rather smaller. Both species are widely distributed 

 across the continent, but B. aphylla is much the more common. 



WEBERA.* 



Much more common than Buxbaumia and scarcely less in- 

 teresting is the odd little Webera shown in Fig. 7. The capsules 

 have much the same one-sided tilt, but are less irregular in 

 outline and are partially incased in the fringed perichastial leaves. 

 The capsule resembles. a grain of wheat in appearance and is 

 almost sessile, the seta being so short as to be scarcely apparent. 

 The leaves are persistent and the non-fruiting plants are fre- 

 quently so abundant as to make a broad mat of dark green, 

 dotted here and there with the lighter colored capsules. In look- 

 ing for Webera search for a moist bank where there is little or 



no tall vegetation, and which at 

 a little distance appears dark 

 green mottled with white. (The 

 white is a lichen that is nearly 

 always found with the Webera.)! 

 Webera is so common and so 

 easily recognized that every lover 

 of mosses should be able to col- 

 lect it in his home locality. The 

 capsules persist for a long time, 

 but July is a good time to collect 

 this species. 



In Webera, as well as in Bux- 

 baumia, the upper surface of the 

 capsules is flattened in cross-section and the capsules all point 

 in the direction of the light supply, often looking like soldiers 

 in close array at " shoulder arms." Both the position of the 

 capsule and the flattening of the upper surface is an adaptation 

 for light absorption, but in Webera the first drops of rain that 



Figure 7. 



- a. Webera sessilis, X 4- b. 

 Leaves, X 4. t,. PericliEetial 

 leaves, X 4. d and e. Peris- 

 tome and operculum, X 10. 



*We have but one species of Webera, W. sessilis (Schmid .) Ivindb,- 

 Diphyscium foliosum of many authors. 



