ToRTULACEiE.J 213 [ToHula. 



The tufts of this little moss are generally filled with fine sand or mud, 

 so that the lower part becomes brown and dead ; the peristome when moist 

 shows a decided tendency to become twisted, though straight when dry. 



8. TORTUIA CUNEIFOLIA (Dicks.) Roth. 



Autoicous ; densely gregarious, pellucid green. Leaves rosulate 

 above, obovate-spathulate, smooth ; nerve thin vanishing or excurrent ; 

 cells lax, quadrate. Caps, erect, oblong, lid conic, oblique ; peristome 

 closely contorted. (T. XXXI, C.) 



Syn. — Bryum humiU, pilis carens viride et pellucidum. Dill. Hist. muse. 356, t. 45, f. 15 

 (1741), et Herbar. 



Bryum miirale Var. fl. HuDS. Fl. angl. 406 (1762). 



Bryum cuneifolium Dicks. PI. crypt. Ill, 7 (1793). Hoffm. Deutsch. fl. ii, 45 e synon. 

 (1795). Hull Br. fl. P. II, 256 (1799). 



Tortula cuneifelia RoTH Tent. fl. germ, iii, P. I, 213 (1800). Sm. Fl. brit. iii, 1257 (1804) ; 

 Eng. Bot. t. 1510. Turn. Muse. hib. 51 p.p. (1804). Hook. Tayl. Muse. br. 31, t. 12 

 (1818). Gray Nat. arr. br. pi. i, 723 (1821). Hook. Grev. in Brewst. Ed. Journ. i, 

 297 (1824). Mont, in Arch. Bot. i, 137 (1832). Hook. Br. fl. ii, 46 (1833). Mack. 

 Fl. hibern. P. 2, 26 (1836). De Not. in Mem. ac. Torin. xl, 296 (1838), Syllab. 174 

 (1838), Muse. ital. I, 28, t. 10 (1862), Epil. bri. ital. 534 (i86g). Spruce in Ann. mag. 

 n. h; 2 ser. iii, 375 (1849). WiLs. Bry. Brit. 128, t. 12 (1855). Berk. Handb. br. m. 

 254 (1863). LiNUE. de Tort. 237 (1864). Hobk. Syn. br. m. 65 (1873). 



Tortula spathiilcefolia De Not. op. c. 297, et Syllab. 174. 



Barbula Dicksoniana Schultz Recens. Barb, et Syntr, 224, t. 34, f. 33 (1823). Hueben. 

 Muse. germ. 311 (1833). 



Barbula cuneifolia Brid. Bry. univ. i, 549 exel. syn. (1826). Br. Schimp. Bry. eur. f. 



13 — 15, Men. 31, t. 17 (1842). C. MuELL. Synops. i, 628 (1849). Bertol. Fl. ital. 



crypt. 209. Schimp. Synops. 182 (i860), 2 ed. 198. Husn. Mouss. nord-ouest. 84 (1873). 



Lesq. James Mosses, N. Amer. 117 (1884). 

 Desmatodon cuneifolius JuRATz. Laubm. oester.-ung. 133 (1882). 



Autoicous ; laxly csespitose or gregarious, bright green. Lower 

 leaves remote broadly ovate, shortly acuminate, upper crowded in a 

 patulous rosette, obovate-spathulate, smooth, soft, thin, often com- 

 plicate-concave ; nerve thin, vanishing below apex or excurrent in a 

 mucro or longer point, margin erect, more or less flexuose, cells at base 

 elongated, very lax and pellucid, above roundish-quadrate, soft and 

 diaphanous, with granular chlorophyl. Caps, on a long purple straight 

 seta, erect oblong or subcylindric, regular or very slightly incurved, 

 olive brown, ann. simple, persistent, lid ^ length of caps., conic ; per. 

 on a broadish basal membrane, reddish, much contorted. Male infl. 

 near the female, gemmaceous, bracts broadly ovate, obtuse. 

 Hab. — Banks near the sea, and edge of ditches. Fr. 3 — 4. 



Devon and Cornwall, frequent. Scotland {Dickson). Yarmouth {Turner). Tunbridge 

 ■we]]s {Forster). Hastings {jfenner, 1841)! Sheie {Dr. Capron, iS6g) W Grosty Hill, 

 Halesowen {Bagnall, 1872)! Garth Ferry, Anglesea {Wihon)\\ Bantry {Miss 

 Hutchins). Cork (Wilson). Howth (Orr). Littlehampton and Maresfield (Mitten). 

 Torquay and Torpoint (Hooker). Plymouth (Holmes) ! ! Budleigh Salterton (Dickie). 



This moss belongs more especially to the Mediterranean area of 

 distribution, and hence with us it occurs most frequently in the south of 



