DiCRANACEiE.J 92 [Archidium. 



or columella ; spores developed in the single sporogonial cell, few, very 

 large, smooth. Calyptra saccate, very thin, tearing irregularly and 

 adhering in fragments to the capsule. — Der. apxiStov the beginning. 



ARCHIDIUM AITERNIFOLIXTM {Dicks.) Schimp. 



Paroicous ; leaves distant, ovato-lanceolato-acuminate ; perichsetial 

 bracts larger, crowded, from a broadly ovate base, lanceolate-subulate, 

 with the nerve excurrent, the margin obsoletely toothed. (T. XIV, A.) 



Syn. — Phascum alternifoUum Dicks. Cr. fasc. I, 2, T. i, fig. 2 (1785). Relh. F1. cant. Suppl. 

 alt. 18 (1788). With. Bot. arr. B. Veg. 3 ed. 786 (1796). Abbot F1. Bedf. 229 (1798). 

 Hull Br. Fl. P. 2, 252 (1799). Hedw. Sp. muse. 24 {1801). Sm. F1. Brit, iii, 1157 

 (1804) ; Eng. Bot. t. 2107. Schwaegr. Suppl. i, P. I, 10, T. 10 (1811). Hook. Tayl. 

 Muse. Br. 6, t. 5 (1818). Gray Nat. arr. Br. pi. i, 711 (1821). 



Phase, globiferum Bruch in Reg. bot. zeit. 1825, I, p. 281, t. 1. 



Pleuridium alternif. Brid. p.p. Mant. muse. 10 (1819), et Bry. univ. ii, 161 (1827). 



Phase, Bruehii Spreng. in L. syst. veg. iv, 142 (1827). Hueben. Muse. germ. 5 (1833). 



Archid. phascoides Brid. Br. univ. i, 747, t. Suppl. 3 (1826). Schwaegr. Suppl. HI, P. I,t. 

 205 (1827). Br. Schimp. Bry. eur. fasc. i (1837). ■'-'^ Not. Syll. n. 391 (1838). 

 Hartm. Skand. Fl. C. Muell. Syn. muse, i, 13 (1849). WiLS. Bry. Brit. 24, t. 5 

 (1855). HusN. Mouss. nord-ouest 37 (1873). 



Archid. alternifoUum Schimp. Syn. 28 (i860), et 2 ed. 23 et 810 (1876). Berk. Handb. Br. 

 m. 305, t. 24, f. 10 (1863). Milde Bry. Siles. 131 (1869). De Not. Epil. Bri. ital. 728 

 (1869). HoBK. Syn. Br. m. 26 (1873). 



Paroicous or autoicous ; in flat lax dull green patches. Plants 

 very small, at first simple, later becoming branched, prostrate with erect 

 innovations, and many slender small-leaved flagella. Stem leaves 

 remote, minute, narrowly lanceolate, perich. bracts forming a coma, 

 crowded, much longer, from an oval concave base, lanceolate-subulate, 

 denticulate at apex ; nerve narrow, vanishing in the apex ; areolation 

 rectangular at base, rhomboid above. Capsule terminal, or lateral by 

 innovation, concealed in the perichsetium, soft, pale yellow, globose, 

 breaking up at maturity. Spores very large, about i6, smooth yellowish. 

 Antheridia in the axils of the perich. bracts, or at base of perichsetium, 

 enclosed in two or more small ovate nerveless bracts. 



Hab. — Wet fields and heaths, not rare. Fr. 3 — 5. 



Gamlingay bogs {Relhan). Stevington bogs (Abbot). Belfast (Drummond) ! Henfield 

 (Borrer) ! Hareley wood (Nowell 1856) ! ! Mere and Ashley, Cheshire (Hunt) ! ! 

 Brighton and Tilgate forest (Davies) ! ! Todmorden (Nowell) ! ! Glenprosen (Fergusson). 

 Dunnottar, Banchory (Sim 1870) ! Coleshill, Warwick. (Bagnall). 



This curious little moss varies in size, and also in the density, length 

 and width of the leaves and extent of the nerve, which is sometimes ex- 

 current. Although the capsule differs in structure from all other mosses by 

 the absence of a spore sac and columella, its afiinity is so close to Pleuridium 

 in habit and foliage, that it seems to be better placed near that genus, than to 

 regard it with Schimper as the type of a distinct family and order of 



