Splachnace^.] 112 [Tetraplodon. 



Tetraplodon mnioides Be. Sch. Bry. eur. fasc. 23 — 24, p. 5, t. 2 (1844). Rabenh. Deutsch. 

 kr. fl. ii, S. 3, gi (1848). C. Muell. Syn. i, 130 (1849). WiLs. Bry. br. 291, t. 9 

 (1855). ScHiMP. Synops. 304 (i860), 2 ed. 364. Berk. Handb. br. m. 165, t. 15, 

 f. 2 (1863). MiLDE Bry. siles. 187 (i86g). Hobk. Syn. br. m. 134 (1873). Jueatz. 

 Laubm. oester.-ung. 232 (1882). Lesq. James Moss. N. Amer. 192 (1884). Husn. 

 Muse. gall. 205, t. 55 (1888). 



Tetraplodon bryoides Lindb. Muse, scand. ig (1879). 



Autoicous ; \ — 3 in. high, branched, robust, covered below with 

 rufous tomentum. Leaves crowded, laxly imbricated, obovate-oblong, 

 acuminate and narrowed suddenly into a flexuose yellowish subula, 

 deeply concave, with a yellow border and entire margin, the nerve 

 prolonged into the subula. Capsule on a long solid orange-red glossy 

 pedicel, oval with an obovate-obconic greenish hypophysis, annulate, 

 pale fuscous, becoming deep rufous when old, when dry and empty 

 contracted below the mouth, with a narrower rugose rufous hypophysis ; 

 lid obtusely conic, teeth lineal-lane, at first quaternate, finally geminate, 

 orange red. 



Hab. — On decayed bones and dung in mountain districts. Fr. 5. Scotland, 

 Wales, N. of England and Ireland. 



Var. j3. Breweri (Hedw.) 



Branches slender; leaves lax, narrower, broadly lane, patent ; caps, 

 less elevated, with smaller hypophysis. 



Syn. — Bryum ampuUaceum,foliis et ampullis angustioribus Dill. Hist. muse. 345, t. 44, fig. 5, 

 et Herb. 



Splachmim Brewerianum Hedw. St. er. ii, 105, t. 38 (1788), Sp. muse. 49. With. Bot. 

 arr. 3 ed. iii, 792. Brid. Muse. rec. II, P. I, 114; Sp. muse. I, 147; Mant. 106 j Bry. 

 univ. i, 251. ScHWAEG. Suppl. I, P. I, 49. 



Splachmim fastigiatwn Dicks. PI. cr. Ill, ^. Swartz Muse. suec. 24. Sm. Fl. brit. 

 1172. Eng. Bot. t. 786. 



Splachnum mnioides p. majus. Hook. Tayl. Muse. br. 20. 



Tetraplodon mnioides ft. Brewerianus Br. Sch. Bry. eur. et Synops. 



Tetraplodon Brewerianus De Not. Epil. 466 (i86g). 



Hab. — In similar localities to the type. 



This fine moss generally bears a profusion of capsules, and its tufts are 

 conspicuous in the peat bogs in which it is generally found. Decayed bones 

 of sheep form the substratum to which it generally attaches itself, and it is 

 probable that when we find it on the peat that sheep's or rabbits' bones 

 have previously laid there and afterwards disappeared by decay. 



2. TETRAPLODON ANGUSTATUS (Swartz) Br. Sch. 



Autoicous; tufted, pale green. Leaves lax, ovato-lanc, with long 

 tapering points, serrated above. Caps, on a short seta, narrow, with a 

 long tapering hypophysis, teeth of per. bigeminate. (T. LXII, B.) 



