Sect. z. STEGOCARPI. 



Capsule dehiscing transversely by a lid ; or in a few lower forms 

 the lid is absent, and the capsule ruptures only by decay of its walls. 



Div. I. Anarthrodontei. 



Peristome consisting of solid teeth not transversely jointed, often 

 attached at the apex to the discoidal dilated extremity of the columella ; 

 sometimes ciliiform ; very rarely none. 



Fam. 2. BUXBAUMIACE^. 



Plants very small, stemless, growing on the ground or on rotten 

 wood. Leaves obsolete. Capsules large, oblique, flattened, on stout 

 pedicels ; calyptra minute conical ; peristome of one or several series 

 of linear teeth ; endostome a 33-plicate membrane in form of a twisted 

 truncate cone ; spores very small. 



The extremely curious plant on which the solitary genus in this 

 family is founded, was iirst discovered by Buxbaum in 1712, near 

 Astracan, on the banks of the Volga, and he says, " I wished to 

 follow the example of Marchanti, and make it into a new genus 

 and name it after my father, but called to mind the fox, who was 

 derided by the others, because he begged the grapes, not for himself, 

 but for his sick mother." 



It was for some time regarded as a fungus ; but Dillenius 

 correctly referred it to the mosses, and indeed terms it regina 

 muscorum; Schmidel submitted it to a minute investigation and 

 published the result in 1758, in a most beautifully illustrated Dis- 

 sertation, and Linnaeus also treated on it in several places ; in our 

 own day Zukal has gathered together much of what is known on 

 the subject in an admirable paper in Verb. k. k. zool. bot. Gesells. 

 Wien xiii, p. 1149 (1863). 



The sporadic character of its distribution and the scanty numbers 

 in which it is found have invested it with rarity, and its discovery 

 is generally hailed with acclamation by collectors, while its peculiar 

 structure will always render it an object of interest to the bryologist. 



The first appearance of Buxbaumia aphylla is manifested by the 

 surface of the ground being colored in patches of a peculiar greenish 



