LEPTODONTIUM. 203 



Perichaetial bracts sheathing. Seta slender, yellowish ; capsule 

 narrowly elliptic or cylindric, yellowish brown with a red mouth ; 

 lid shortly rostellate ; peristome teeth slender, fragile, yellowish, 

 smooth. Male plant more slender, inflorescence terminal. 



Hab. Peaty arid gravelly soil, not common. Fr. early spring. 



Known at once by the flexuose, recurved, distant leaves, sharply toothed at apex, 

 short and widely Ungulate, rather acute but not tapering at the points. The whole 

 plant has a succulent, fragile texture. Axillary and terminal buds, or gemmiform 

 bodies are often formed, which are readily detached and serve to propagate the 

 plant. It is most frequently found in the barren state. 



3. Leptodontium recurvifolium Lindb. (Bryum recurvi- 



folium Tayl. ; Didymodon recurvifolius Wils., Schp. Syn.) 



(Tab. XXX. F.). 



Taller and more robust than the last species, 1-5 inches high, 

 pale or yellowish green above, dark or yellow below. Leaves 

 from a pale erect base squarrose and recurved, slightly undulate ; 

 when dry crisped, undulate and incurved but not erect nor 

 appressed, rather distant, larger fr line long) ovate-oblong or 

 oblong-lanceolate, slightly narrowed above, at apex shortly and 

 widely acute, or rather obtuse and apiculate ; margin plane, 

 serrulate from near the base, in the upper half with coarse 

 irregular denticulations ; nerve thin, reaching apex and excurrent 

 in a minute apiculus or slightly longer point; basal cells 

 rectangular, small, hyaline or pellucid, the upper rounded- 

 quadrate, rather smaller than in the last, obscure with chlorophyll, 

 minutely papillose, 2-4 rows at margin slightly enlarged, pellucid, 

 smooth, forming a pale border, not papillose at edge. 



Hab. Wet rocks on mountains ; very rare. Killarney and Ben Voirlich, now 

 extinct. Creag Mhor, Tyndrum ; Glydr Vawr, Tyn-y-groes, Cwm Buchan and 

 Cynicht, N. Wales. Fruit unknown. 



A very fine and interesting species, and unknown except from the localities 

 named. Abortive archegonia mixed with n few paraphyses are the only organs of 

 fructification that have been found. The plant is usually of a dusky colour, and 

 almost black in the lower parts ; the specimens from Cynicht, however, where I 

 gathered it in 1888, are pale yellowish green throughout, and are also taller and more 

 slender than the other forms. 



L. recurvifolium can hardly be confused with any other moss ; in the dry state 

 it might be overlooked for Dichodontium pelhtciduiu or D. flavescens, but when 

 moistened the recurved, squarrose leaves, with pale border, at once distinguish it. 



42. WEISIA Hedw. 



Plants small or moderately tall, slender, with lanceolate or 

 linear-lanceolate leaves, usually much twisted when dry, basal 



