LEPTOBRYUM. 3OI 



The habit, and the very narrow leaves with broad nerve, 

 seem to justify the separation of the few species of this genus 

 from Bryum, which they resemble in the fruit. 



1. Leptobryum pyriforme Wils. (Mnium pyriforme L.) 

 (Tab. XLI. H.). 



Closely tufted, pale shining green, silky ; stems f-i inch 

 high, very slender. Leaves erecto-patent or divergent, flexuose 

 when dry, the upper longer, in a comal tuft, linear-setaceous, 

 long, tapering to a subulate point, flexuose ; margin plane, 

 denticulate above ; nerve strong, but rather indistinct, broad, 

 occupying most of the acumen, slightly excurrent, cells very 

 narrow, linear, pointed at the ends and prosenchymatous or 

 obtuse and parenchymatous, at base a little wider. Perichsetial 

 bracts widened at the base, very long ; seta tall, slender, rather 

 flexuose, orange, ]-2 inches high ; capsule inclined or pendulous, 

 pyriform with the long narrow neck, the capsule itself oval- 

 globose, abruptly passing into the neck, thin-walled, very glossy, 

 bright reddish brown, rather wide-mouthed after the fall of the 

 hemispherical, pointed lid. Peristome yellow, inner with long, 

 appendiculate cilia. Synoicous, or imperfectly dioicous. 



Hab. Sandstone rocks, cinders, etc., often in hothouses, not uncommon. Fr. 

 spring or early summer. 



A very elegant and beautiful plant, both in the leaf and in the fruit, which is 

 usually very abundant ; the setaceous leaves give it the appearance of a Dicranella or 

 Dicranodontium. Barren plants with terminal flowers often occur, having the 

 appearance of male plants, but they contain abortive archegonia mixed with the 

 antheridia. 



Leptobryum differs from Orthodontium gracile in the more denticulate leaves 

 with broader nerve and narrower areolation, as well as in the fruit. The burnished 

 capsules are exceedingly pretty. 



A stunted variety has been separated as L. minus, but on too slight grounds ; it 

 has not, I believe, been recorded from our islands. 



75. WEBERA Hedw. 



(Pohlia Hedw., Braithw. Br. M. Fl.). 



Tufted, stems usually slender, rarely innovating above. 

 Leaves usually rather narrow, becoming narrower upwards and 

 often much longer in the coma, nerve rarely excurrent, cells 

 narrowly rhomboid or almost linear, rarely wider. Calyptra 

 small, very soon deciduous. Capsule pyriform to clavate, with or 

 without a tapering neck. Peristome as in Bryum ; but cilia 

 without appendages. 



