310 BRYACE^. 



8. Webera camea Schp. (Bryum carneum L. ; Pohlia carnea 



Lindb., Braithw. Br. M. Fl.) (Tab. XLII. G.). 



Plants loosely or more densely tufted, in wide patches, very- 

 pale green, becoming reddish when old, rarely one inch in height. 

 Stems red, with numerous fastigiate slender innovations bearing 

 sub-equal leaves. Stem-leaves becoming somewhat larger 

 upwards, small, narrowly lanceolate, the comal elongate-lanceo- 

 late ; when dry erect or erecto-patent, not incurved nor appressed, 

 slightly flexuose, denticulate in the upper half, margin plane or 

 almost so, nerve ceasing below apex, reddish at base ; cells widely 

 rhomboid-hexagonal {18-25 /j. wide), at base looser, but hardly 

 rectangular ; the marginal in two or three rows somewhat distinctly 

 narrower. Seta short (about |-inch), rather thick and succulent 

 when young, finally deep red below, paler above, flexuose, often 

 strongly hooked at summit, rendering the capsule pendulous ; 

 capsule very small, with the neck very shortly oval-pyriform, 

 when dry and empty wide-mouthed, exactly and widely pyr if orm,. 

 the capsule itself oval-globose, with a short but narrow and distinct 

 neck ; before maturity of a fleshy consistency and colour, finally 

 bright reddish brown ; lid obtusely apiculate, annulus none ; 

 peristome teeth orange-red, cilia in pairs. Dioicous. 



Hab. Clay banks, usually by the side of ditches and streams, common. Fr. 

 early spring. 



W. carnea and W. albicans form in some respects a separate group, distinguished 

 from the foregoing species of this Section, as well as from those of the Section Pohlia, 

 by the wider leaf-cells, the very short capsule, and the absence of an annulus. In W. 

 Ludwigii and W. commutata the cells are indeed as wide in proportion to their 

 length, though somewhat smaller altogether, but in the other species the cells are 

 decidedly narrower (less than 15 /j., while in these they are often as much as 20 p, or 

 even 25 /u), and in all the capsule is larger or more elongated, being larger, if not pro- 

 portionately of greater length even in W. gracilis. W. carnea is a pretty little plant, 

 which varies very little, and is easily known by the short, almost uniform stems, the 

 pale green colour, and the very small capsules on short fleshy seta; ; the absence of 

 annulus and wide cells serve to distinguish it under the microscope in cases of 

 difficulty. W. albicans is in almost all cases a taller plant of softer texture, of * 

 whiter and more glaucous colour, and with wider, larger leaves. The vanishing 

 nerve will serve to separate this species when barren from any species of Bryum for 

 which it is at all likely to be mistaken. The seta is hooked so close to the capsule — 

 in this respect differing from most species of the genus — that the neck of the capsule 

 itself often partakes in the bending. 



9. Webera albicans Schp. {Bryum albicans Wahl. ; Pohlia 



albicans Lindb., Braithw. Br. M. Fl.) (Tab. XLII. H.). 



In large, very soft, lax tufts, /-j inches high, pale whitish or 

 glaucous green. Stems bright red, slender, flexuose. Leaves 

 usually rather distant, when dry shrunken and narrowed, but 



