DICRANACEAE. igs 
the upper cells—except perhaps some forms of D. robustum. Roughly 
speaking, one might distinguish the three species in question as follows :— 
Nerve stout throughout the leaf oo robustum 
Nerve narrow throughout, distinct above a -.»  pungens 
Nerve variable below, wide and indistinct above ..  setosum. 
The subula of D. setoswm varies considerably in length and in 
serrulation ; it is usually very finely setaceous, and in Hooker's specimens 
usually subentire or only finely and rather distantly denticulate, but I 
cannot separate other plants with much rougher subula. The leaves in 
D, setosum are frequently very fragile. 
s D. setosum among the species having the Toxoneuron 
type of nerve. This is probably typically the case, but I have sectioned 
leaves of specimens from Mitten’s herbarium from Hawke’s Bay (probably 
out of the Hookerian herbarium) in which the nerve is very variable, some- 
times showing traces of internal stereid bands, but at others certainly of 
the Heteroneuron type, while in other specimens I have found it inter- 
the type of nerve is plastic and unreliable as a specific character. I have 
found the nerve at least twice as wide in the lamina of one leaf ag in 
another from the same portion of the same stem in a typical specimen of 
D. setosum (W. 266, in Herb. Hook.). 
After much hesitation I have come to the conclusion that D. subpungens 
Hampe must be referred to the present species. I have examined the 
type in Hampe’s herbarium, and am unable to detect any difference between 
it and, e.g., Hooker's Campbell Island specimens of D. setosum ( 26). 
’s note on his species indicates that it differs from D. pungens 
principally in the theca shorter and strumose, implying that the theca 
in D. p ns is not strumose. The type specimens of D. pung in 
Hooker’s herbarium, however, show the capsule distinctly though not 
strongly strumose, and variable in length, so that the most that can be 
said of D. subpungens in comparison is that the capsule is slightly shorter 
and somewhat more markedly strumose than is usual in D. pungens 
. ppear to me 
nerve, as in that, variable in width 
bo 
