Neckerace^.] 209 \Fontinalis. 



Var. )8. depauperata Boulay Muse. Fr. 154. 



Stems very short with fewer and shorter branches, obtuse, dark lurid green. 

 Leaves closely imbricated, shorter, somewhat recurved at points. 



Had. — Sandy places near water. Sand dunes at St. Anne's, Lanes. {Beesley 1900) ! ! S. shore 

 of Loch Tay {Braithwaiie 1902) ! ! 



6. FONTINALIS {Dill.) L. 



Glossy mosses with long slender stems, floating in water, fixed only at 

 base, with numerous branches, often naked at lower part. Leaves tri- 

 farious, equil, ovate or lanceolate, folded together into a keel, or round at 

 back, entire, smooth, nerveless ; cells prosenchymatous, long and narrow, 

 ' without chlorophyl, the basal angular quadrate or rectangular. Perich. 

 bracts large, appressed to capsule, obovate or circular ; capsule enclosed in 

 the bracts, oval or ovate, the lid conical, calyptra small, conical ; peristome 

 of 16 lanceolate teeth united at point in pairs, papillose ; endostome a 

 latticed cone, composed of 16 filiform processes connected together by 

 horizontal bars, which have often appendages directed inwai-d.^Der. fans, 

 a fountain. 



This remarkable genus has been greatly extended by the investigations of 

 M. Cardot, who divided it into no less than 6 sections as follows (Rev. bryol. 

 1891, p. 81). 



1. Tropidophyllae. Leaves generally uniform, rarely more or less dimorphous, somewhat 



firm, oval-lanceolate or oblong-lanceolate, diversely acuminate, typically carinate- 

 conduplicate, the branch-leaves sometimes rounded at back, F. antipyretica L., F. gracilis 

 LiND., F. dolosa Card. 



2. Heterophyllse. Leaves mostly dimorphous, not carinate, the cauline widely oval- 



lanceolate or lanceolate, more or less longly narrowly acuminate, the rameal much 

 smaller, narrowly lanceolate, channelled or tubular at point, rigid when dry. 



3. Lepidophyllse. Leaves uniform, not carinate, rather firm, oval-lanceolate or oblong- 



lanceolate, sometimes narrowly -lanceolate, diversely acuminate. F. squamosa L., 

 F. dalecarlica B. and S., F. Dixoni Card. 



4. Malacophyllae. Leaves uniform, or nearly so, slightly concave or nearly plane, usually 



very soft and distant, oval-lanceolate or narrowly lanceolate, and nearly all longly and 

 narrowly acuminate. F. seriata Lindb. 



5. Stenophyllse. Leaves uniform, channelled, rather firm, narrowly lanceolate, longly 



acuminate. 



6. SoIenophyllsB. Leaves uniform, narrowly lanceolate, rigid, tubular or channelled at the 



point. 



In 1902 M. Cardot elaborated his " Monographic des Fontinalacees " 

 (Memoires de la Soc. nationale des Sciences naturelles et methematiques de 

 Cherbourg, Tom. xxviii.), probably the most perfect specimen of a monograph that 

 has yet appeared. In this the species were raised to 36, and additions are still 

 being made to the list, so that above 50 are now known. 



From what I have observed in the structure of the endostome, there are con- 

 siderable differences in the armature of the transverse bars, which will, I think, 

 afford useful characters in the discrimination of species, especially as in no genus 

 of mosses is there so little difference in the cell-structure of the leaves, as in 

 Fontinalis ; the fruit, however, is too often conspicuous by its absence. 



