INTRODUCTION TO CRYPTOGAMIC BOTANY. 499 



ing habit. It is distinguished by the teeth not having a cen- 

 tral line, and being generally truncate and irregular. The 

 calyptra is conical, with, usually, an entire base. Most of the 

 species occur in the southern hemisphere, but one is found in 

 France, and is amongst the most interesting of European mosses. 

 The greatest ornament of the tribe, however, is Brepanophyl- 

 lum, which appears to abound in Cayenne, from whence 

 Leprieur has distributed many fine-fruited specimens. It is 

 found also in Bourbon. It differs greatly from the others in 

 the imperfection of the peristome. The shoots often bear 

 terminal tufts of filiform gemmae. These gems and the female 

 organs are sometimes close together. The plant is, however, 

 dioecious. In Oonomitriwm the male and female organs are 

 sometimes approximated. 



3. Fabroniei, Mont. 



Leaves imbricated, entire or ciliated, nerveless or furnished 

 with an excurrent nerve ; sporangium lateral, urceolate ; peri- 

 stome 0, or consisting of sixteen teeth, approximated in pairs. 



557. The species of which this small tribe is composed, are 

 small tufted plants with cylindrical imbricated stems. There 

 are but two genera. Of these, Aiilacopilv/m has a large sul- 

 cate calyptra split on one side, and covering the sporangium, 

 which has no peristome. The leaves are glaucous, nerveless, 

 and secund, with granular areolae. Fabronia has a cuculliform 

 calyptra; a peristome consisting of sixteen teeth, approximated 

 in pairs, so as to look like eight ; and leaves, for the most 

 part, ciliato-dentate, with an excurrent nerve, and loosely 

 reticulated. Aulacopilum glaucum grows with Fabronia in 

 New Zealand. Other species of Fabronia occur in Quito, 

 Brazil, India, Abyssinia, Australia, and South Africa; and one 

 species occurs in Italy and the Cevennes. The reticulation of 

 the leaves in Aulacopilum is very different from that in most 

 Fabronice, but the habit is the same. The texture, however, 

 varies in the latter genus. 



4. FoNTiNALEi, Br. & 8c., Mont. 



Aquatic, floating. Sporangium subsessile, immersed in the 

 perichsetial leaves ; peristome double ; inner peristome cancel- 

 lated. 



32 * 



