SPLACHNACEAE, 191 
instance may be barely the lenete of the capsule (with apophysis), while 
on the other hand it may reach to 2 cm. e nerve is usually excurrent 
in the upper leaves in a Che faxissee arista. 
The species has a wide distribution in the Australasian region. 
Dissodon longicollis C. M. (type, in Berlin ease is certainly to be 
referred here. 
FUNARIACEAE, 
GiGAsPERMUM Lindb. in Oefv. af K. Vet.-Akad. Foerh., 1864, p. 599. 
(For synonymy see the species). 
Gigaspermum repens (Hook.) Lindb., op. et loc. cit. (1864). 
Syn. Anictangium repens Hook., Muse. Exot., t. 106 (1820). 
Hedwigia ego Ht. me Wis, FI. N. Z., ii, 92 (1855). Leptangium 
repens Mitt. gene Linn, Soc., Bot t., iv, 79, (1859); Handb. 
L. oh % 4, Physcomitrium repens C. M., Syn., ii, 544, 
ae ete tenellum C, M., MS. in Herb. et Gen. Musc. Frond., 
130.* 
This rare and peculiar little moss has given taxonomists much trouble 
as the above synonymy shows. It has no doubt found its true place in 
the Funariaceae. This is confirmed in a rather interesting way by the 
discovery of the type of a new genus (Cha m Thér. & Dixon) in 
South Africa, which links up the South African Gigaspermum Breutelii 
M.) Par. with undoubted Funarioid genera repens occurs in 
Australia and Tasmania. It was first found in the North Island of New 
Zealand by Colenso. I am aware of only two gatherings since then, one 
by R. Brown. Unfortunately the specimens do not indicate the locality, 
beyond that it was probably in the South Island, since Brown was in the 
habit of distinguishing all specimens gathered by him in the North Island 
by so designating them. A third gathering was from Stewart Island, by 
Kirk. By the kindness of the Berlin Museum I have been enabled to 
examine Kirk’s at the ori of G. tenellum in herb. C. Mueller. The 
leaves are all simply mucronate or shortly cuspidate, and it is, 
without doubt ge the sterile plant of G@. repens, in which the leaves of 
; : - 
The habit of growth, the fruiting-shoots being produced from the upper 
side of a creeping, often underground, rhizomatous stem, is one of the 
characteristic features, but is usually masked by the crowded fruiting- 
numerous large, hyaline, scarious perichaetial bracts, giving the tufts a 
white colour; the widely urceolate, almost sessile capsule is hidden within | 
these bracts; the spores are remarkably large, reaching 70u. in diameter. 
PuyscomiTripium Roth, die Aussereuropaisch, Laubm., i, 250 (1911). 
Syn. Ephemerella (Physcomitridium) C. M.in Hedwig., xli, 120 (1902). 
Roth is in error in attributing (Joc. cit.) the genus to C. Mueller. Mueller 
described the species as an Ephemerella. In the Gen. Musc. Frond. the 
species drops out—at least, it does not appear under Physcomitridium or 
Ephemerella. Under Physcomitriu m §Cryptopyxis, C. Mueller (p. 112) 
* The synonymy given in Paris, Ind., ed. ii, is incorrect in several respects. 
