PHILONOTIS. 295 



leaves ; perigonial bracts very wide, short, acute, nerve distinct, 

 reaching apex. 



Hab. Bogs and wet heaths, rare, and not found in fruit in Britain. Fr. summer. 



The acute perigonial bracts form practically the only character to separate this 

 plant from P. fontanel. The leaves, in Wilson's plant from Walton, Cheshire, are 

 exactly what one often finds in the smaller forms of that species, more particularly its 

 var. compacta. In Mr. Bagnall's plant from Studley, Warwickshire, I find the margin 

 recurved as strongly as in ordinary P. fontana. The male flowers are rare ; the bracts 

 are almost as wide as long, so that their outline is nearly that of an equilateral 

 triangle, whereas in P. capillaris and P. calcarea they are considerably longer than 

 broad, and more narrowly acuminate. In the absence of other characters of 

 importance I do not think P. caspitosa can claim specific rank ; and this view is 

 strongly supported by the fact that Venturi (Rev. Bry. 1882, p. 43) describes a 

 specimen of Wilson's from Warrington as in no way differing in the flowers from 

 ordinary P. fontana, and moreover the inner perigonial bracts are sub-obtuse in 

 British specimens examined by Boulay ( Muscinies de la France, p. 216). In any 

 case the vegetative characters, as distinct from P. fontana, are so slight, if they exist 

 at all, that it would not always be safe to refer plants to this sub-species in the 

 absence of male flowers. 



* Philonotis adpressa Ferg. (Tab. XLI. A.). 



Stems very slender and elongated, 2-5 inches long, with few 

 short branches, dull green, reddish below, easily separating, 

 hardly tomentose, weak and flexuose. Leaves not crowded, 

 appressed, flaccid, very widely ovate from a broad, amplexicaul, 

 slightly decurrent base, with one or two plicae on each side, 

 concave, the lower obtuse and cucullate, the upper gradually 

 more pointed, but rarely much acuminate ; nerve very strong, 

 ceasing below apex or excurrent in the apical leaves ; margin 

 more or less reflexed, areolation lax, papillose. Inflorescence 

 unknown. 



Hab. Springs on mountains, very rare ; Scotland. 



This is one of the most distinct forms of the group, and would certainly be 

 entitled to specific rank should the perigonia or fruit, when found, exhibit any 

 characters distinct from those of P. fontana. Should that, however, not prove the 

 case, the above characters would not, I think, warrant its separation from the poly- 

 morphous P. fontana ; although very different in aspect, and for the most part in leaf 

 form and structure, it will be found that the most typical plants usually show, in the 

 uppermost leaves, a distinct tendency towards the normal, acuminate form of P. 

 fontana, with excurrent nerve ; and it may be questioned whether, at the most, P. 

 adpressa shows any wider variation from the typical form than does, in exactly the 

 opposite direction, the var. compacta of that species. The wide, distant, erect and 

 appressed leaves, not spreading nor falcate, very shortly pointed or even obtuse and 

 cucullate, the slender stems only slightly radiculose and not coherent, render it, how- 

 ever, easy of recognition. 



*, Philonotis seriata Mitt. (Tab. XLI. B.). 



Resembling P fontana but in looser, less cohering tufts, 

 reddish below, stems rather slender. Leaves (especially where 



