CEDIPODIUM. 261 



A genus containing only a single species, which is very often, 

 and with some reason, placed in a separate Order. The grounds 

 for so doing, however, appear to me to be outweighed by its 

 undoubted affinity with Splachnaceae. 



1. CEdipodium Griffithianum Schwgr. (Bryum Griffithianum 

 Dicks.) (Tab. XXXVI. E.). 



Plants gregarious or somewhat tufted, dark green, \-\ inch 

 high. Leaves succulent, flaccid and crisped when dry, the upper- 

 most in a spreading rosette, concave, obovate-spathulate from a 

 ■very narrow base, very obtuse, usually bearing rather large 

 axillary, bright green gemmx ; margin plane, somewhat undulate, 

 entire, at base fringed with pale jointed hairs or cilia ; nerve 

 broad, vanishing at some distance below the apex ; cells large, 

 hexagonal or rounded, gradually smaller towards apex ; the 

 marginal row sub-quadrate or rectangular, the basal very thin, 

 pale, rectangular. Capsule brown, from globose to shortly 

 elliptical, small, on a pedicel 3-6 lines long, the greater part of 

 which, or perhaps the whole must be regarded as a narrow 

 apophysis, gradually tapering downwards into the vaginu'la, 

 hollow for a great part of its length, succulent, pale, (brown after 

 maturity), twisted and rugose when dry. Calyptra narrow, 

 conical ; lid convex, mamillate. Columella not exserted, dilated 

 at top. 



Hab. On earth in crevices of high mountain rocks, rare. Fr. late summer. 



Easily known, even when barren, by the rosettes of rounded, translucent leaves, 

 often bearing gemmae, this very curious and interesting moss is still more distinct in 

 fruit, the pale soft pedicel and rounded fruit having much more the appearance of the 

 analogous structures among the Hepatics than of the ordinary moss fruit. The ciliate 

 leaf-base is also remarkable. The leaves become very dull green when dry, and the 

 moss is then comparatively inconspicuous. The upper part of the apophysis bears 

 large stomata. The plant loves dark crevices filled with black peaty soil and does not 

 grow on the actual rock. 



It has only been found, outside Great Britain and Ireland, in a, few localities in 

 Scandinavia. 



53. SPLAOHNUM L. 



Plants growing in loose tufts ; leaves more or less obovate or 

 broadly lanceolate, wider above the base ; cells lax, hexagonal, 

 smooth. Seta long, capsule oval or cylindric, apophysis wide, 

 pyriform, globose or umbrella-shaped ; peristome teeth 16, in 

 pairs, usually reflexed when dry. Male flower sub-discoid, 

 terminal. 



