33 2 bryacEjE. 



acuminate ; capsule shorter, obovate, less tapering at base, dark 

 brown. 



Hab. Dry banks, rocks and walls. Common. The var. j8, Little Doward, 

 Herefordshire (Ley) ; the var. 7, Milnthorpe, Westmorland (Barnes). Fr. summer. 



A common species, but frequently barren ; when fertile however the capsules are 

 produced abundantly. They are somewhat variable in form and usually more or less 

 gibbous below, nearly horizontal when dry, and wide-mouthed ; by which characters 

 and by the dioicous inflorescence the species may be known from B. intermedium. 

 B. capillare is known by the very different leaves, B. inclinatum — usually a more 

 robust plant — and B. pendulum by the imperfect inner peristome and distinctly 

 bordered leaves, B. affine by the synoicous inflorescence, and B. pallescens by the 

 autoicous inflorescence and more distinctly bordered leaves with wider cells. It is 

 this last species with which, perhaps, the greatest difficulty is likely to arise. 



The absence of a border to the leaves cannot, I fear, be relied upon as a 

 thoroughly constant and satisfactory character, as forms undoubtedly occur in which 

 this structure is decidedly manifest. 



20. Bryum provinciate Philib. (Bryum canariense Schp., 

 non Brid., nonnull. auct.) (Tab. XLIV. J.). 



Resembling B. inclinatum. Stems robust, 1 inch high, in 

 loose tufts ; leaves interruptedly tufted, the terminal of each 

 year forming a large rosette, those of the intermediate parts of 

 the stem much smaller; upper leaves closely imbricated and 

 hardly twisted -when dry, large, obovate or widely ovate-spathu- 

 late, sub-acute or acute, not acuminate, margin recurved to near 

 but not to apex, above strongly toothed, nerve strong, red, 

 excurrent in a somewhat recurved cuspidate point ; cells regularly 

 hexagonal-rhomboid, remaining wide to near the margin and 

 apex, one or two rows only at margin slightly narrower. Capsule 

 pendulous, on a long red seta cygneous at the summit, oblong- 

 cylindric with a long tapering neck, dark brownish red, large, 

 if-2 lines long, lid conical, acuminate or apiculate ; peristome 

 large, yellowish. Autoicous and synoicous, often on the same 

 plant. 



Hab. Dry calcareous hills, often in woods, chiefly in the south, rare. Fr. summer. 



Although resembling in habit some forms of B. inclinatum, this plant is perhaps 

 more allied to B. capillare, from which however it is easily known by the firmer, 

 more serrate leaves, not spirally twisted when dry, and arranged in conspicuous, 

 interrupted tufts. This latter feature occurs at times in B. inclinatum, but there is 

 no great difficulty in distinguishing B. provinciate from it, as well as from all the 

 species with similar leaves, if the following points be kept in mind. In B. inclinatum 

 the leaves at the apex are narrowly acuminate, indistinctly toothed, and with the 

 ■cells all becoming narrower, especially towards the margin, those at the edge being 

 extremely narrow and elongated ; in B. provinciate the apex is wide, hardly at all 

 acuminate, with distinct and spreading serratures for some way down the leaf, and 

 with the cells hardly altered towards the apex, only a single row or at most two at 

 the very margin being slightly narrower than the rest. The capsule resembles that of 

 B. capillare. 



