294 BARTRAMIACEiE. 



elongate and ovate. Male flower large, bright reddish brown, the 

 bracts spreading, almost horizontal, widely ovate-triangular from 

 an erect base, obtuse and usually rounded at apex, serrate, nerve 

 broad, thin, becoming indistinct and vanishing below the summit. 



Var. /?. compacta Schp. Tufts small, compact, densely 

 tomentose ; stems very slender, leaves small, narrow, lanceolate, 

 hardly plicate, margin plane or almost so, nerve vanishing below 

 the apex, or excurrent. 



Var. y. falcata Brid. Leaves falcato-secund, branches 

 hooked at apex. 



Var. 8. pumila (Bartramia pumila Turn.). Stems more 

 slender, leaves smaller, of thinner, less opaque texture ; seta 

 more slender, capsule smaller. 



Hab. Peat bogs and springs. Common in mountainous districts. The var. /J 

 at higher altitudes, not common, usually by streams or among rocks. The var. y, 

 Wales, Scotland. The var. S not uncommon, but usually sterile. Fr. summer. 



The forms of this protean plant are endless, and no good purpose seems served by 

 giving varietal names to the numberless variations which occur. The var. compacta, 

 however, includes within narrow limits a series of forms of very similar habit, remark- 

 able for their slenderness, compactness, and uniform, narrow leaves, very finely 

 acuminate, and with the nerve frequently excurrent in a very long arista (though 

 occasionally vanishing), — the exact antithesis, in fact, of P. adpressa. The var. 

 falcata, as described by Braithwaite, is evidently an intermediate form between the 

 present species and P. calcarea. The falcate direction of the leaves is however, in 

 itself, neither important nor uncommon, and it is quite clear that different authors by 

 no means intend the same plants by this name. (v. description of P. striata.) 



P. fontana frequently grows among rocks in and by mountain streams, and 

 usually then departs widely from the typical form, very often in the direction of 

 greater slenderness, with longer more undivided stems, usually barren, and with the 

 leaves mostly shorter and smaller, the colour as a rule darker and more lurid, not 

 uncommonly almost black. Very slender forms may be found approaching P. 

 capillaris, while robust plants are not unfrequently seen which in the barren state are 

 very difficult to separate from P. calcarea. 



I have fertile specimens from N. America which I refer, on Mitten's authority, to 

 the var. pumila ( Bartr. pumila Turn. ). I learn from him that it was this plant 

 which Wilson, at one time at least, regarded as B. pumila, and he also tells me that 

 he has seen it, though barren only, from England, Scotland and Ireland. In his- 

 opinion it should be considered a separate species, but I must confess that in vegetative 

 characters it does not appear to me to differ so widely from the type as many other 

 varietal forms, and it is only on account of the slenderness of the fruiting organs that 

 I have felt justified in retaining it even as a variety. In X. America it appears to be 

 common. 



* Philonotis csBspitosa Wils. (Tab. XL. K.). 



Shorter, more slender, soft or rigid, usually of a dull, deeper 

 green, stems less branched. Leaves less closely imbricated, 

 homomallous, small, not plicate, margin often plane ; fruit as in 

 P. fontana. Male plants with small, appressed, less acuminate 



