200 HANDBOOK 01' BRITISH MOSSES. 



56. WEBERA, Hedw. 



Fruit as in Bryum. Innovations mostly from the base; 

 stem mostly slender; leaves narrow; leaf-cells hexagonal, 

 elongated. 



The innovations are certainly not always from the base, the 

 generic character therefore must rest more on habit and the 

 nature of the leaves than on anything very definite in point of 

 structure. The genus is retained here because the species it 

 contains form a natural group, and, with the exception of W. 

 Tozeri, are associated in Wilson's arrangement. 



a. Leaves narrow. 

 * Sporangium with, a long neck. 



1. W. acuminata^ Schimp. ; upper leaves long, lanceolate, 

 sulcate, obscurely serrate at the tip ; margin recurved ; nerve 

 reaching to the tip ; sporangium slender, with a long tapering 

 neck, horizontal ; lid acutely conical. — Hook. 1$ Wils. t. xlvii. 



On mountains. Scotland, Wales, and north of England. 

 Bearing fruit in autumn. 



Forming short tufts. "Leaves erect, straight, sometimes 

 secund ; lid sometimes rostellate ; inner peristome very deeply 

 divided; processes mostly narrow and pierced ; cilia absent. 



2. W. polymorpha, Schimp. ; mouoicous ; antheridia free, 

 axillary ; upper leaves crowded, oblongo-lanceolate, the nerve 



JBryiim canariense. 



— ctespiticium, 



— erytforoearpwm. 



Sect. IV. Leaves very concave, closely imbricated ; nerve mostly 

 ceasing below the apex. 



— argenteum. 



Sect. V. Leaves very large. 



— .roseum. 



