BARBULA. 193 



whitish ; very variable in height, usually about 1 inch high, 

 frequently more. Leaves spreading, the uppermost rather the 

 longest, when dry incurved and slightly twisted, oblong-lanceolate 

 or Ungulate, broad at apex , and obtuse or very shortly pointed, 

 carinate ; margin revolute, entire ; nerve strong, vanishing below 

 the apex ; cells at apex irregularly elliptic, the marginal 

 smaller, crenulate-papillose, below sub-quadrate, at base shortly 

 rectangular ; all thick-walled, pellucid, and very distinct, the 

 upper slightly papillose. Seta rather stout, dark red ; capsule 

 elliptic or broadly oblong, rather wide-mouthed when dry and 

 empty, dark brown ; lid oblique, longly rostellate, annulus almost 

 obsolete, persistent ; peristome teeth short, erect, from a very 

 short basal membrane, divided almost to the base, the branches 

 filiform, unequal, sometimes partly united, reddish. Dioicous. 



Hab. Wet calcareous walls and springs ; common. Fr. winter. 



Easily known by its colour, the obtuse, Ungulate leaves with comparatively short 

 nerve, and the very distinct, rounded upper cells, and when in fruit by the dark, 

 rather wide-mouthed capsule and short slender peristome. It is most variable in the 

 size of all its parts, and in the form of its leaves, and numerous varieties have been 

 described, none of which, however, seem marked by any important characters ; such 

 are the var. brevifolia (Wils. excl. syn. ), with broader, shorter, more acute leaves; 

 var. actttifolia (Scrip. ) with longer, narrower, acuminate, acute leaves, spreading and 

 recurved. Sometimes it is tall and robust (forma luxurians Braithw. ), at others it is 

 so minute as to resemble almost exactly a species of Pottia such as P. lanceolata, or it 

 may be even still more dwarf. The leaves when moist have a pellucid appearance 

 quite different from most species of the genus. 



4. Barbula fallax Hedw. (Tab. XXIX. D.). 



In wide loose tufts or patches, of a dull brownish green, 

 frequently with a reddish tinge, \-2 inches high ; stems slender, 

 with fastigiate branches. Leaves rather distant, spreading, 

 recurved or variously arcuate, when dry appressed, closely 

 imbricated, slightly twisted, often giving the stems, in the slender 

 forms especially, a catenulate appearance ; the uppermost, 

 longer leaves more distinctly twisted ; from a wide base 

 gradually narrowed to a lanceolate tapering point, which is 

 either wide or more frequently rather narrow and sub-acute ; 

 carinate, faintly plicate at base on each side of the nerve ; margin 

 revolute to beyond the middle ; nerve strong, reddish, reaching to 

 apex, rarely very slightly excurrent ; upper cells roundish or 

 hexagonal, irregular, or more often regular in shape and arrange- 

 ment, small, incrassate, papillose, at base slightly elongate, but 

 not much altered, a few (rarely more) sub-rectangular and 

 pellucid. Seta red, capsule oblong or cylindric, erect or nearly 

 N 



