SPMATOPHYLLACEAE. 309 
above or quite straight and sy prenaies: and it may either have 
a short tapering neck, or more fre ntly it rosie alae into 
the seta, with a slightly enlarged senaen thicken the base 
in the place of a collum; this, in fact, is often a very mire feature ; 
the different forms often occur on the same plant. The beak of 
the lid may be either straight or curved. It is a common species. 
2. Rhaphidostegium leucocytus (C.M.) Jaeg. Adumbr. ii, a 
Syn. Hypnum leucocytus C.M. Syn. ii, 314 (1851). 
cerviculatum H. f. & W., FI. NZ. li, 113 (1858) 
andb. N.Z. Fl., p. 473. jee eee cervicu- 
latum Jaeg. Adumbr. ll, 
The authors of the Handbook ae nee introduced 
further confusion into this group by their description of H. cervicu- 
latum as a new species and their Daren of H. leucocytus C.M. 
to their H. leptorrhynchum. As a matter of fact both H. cervicu- 
In both Wilson’s herbarium in the Brit. Mus. collection, and in 
Hooker’s herbarium at Kew, these Auckland Is. specimens, labelled 
W. 81 and W. 82, and at first written in as H. leptorrhynchum, are 
later made the basis of H. cerviculatum; and the name must give 
way to C. Mueller’s, qjerins four years earlier. 
leucocytus is a quite distinct species. (The figure 786 in 
Brotherus, Musci—as Rhaphidostegium cerviculatum—is very mis- 
leading, and must certainly have been ta en pier an incorrectly 
named specimen.) Its characters are a dioicous inflorescence, the 
leaves not strongly faleate (though varia). usually indeed only 
slightly so; the colour is generally very pale green, ae not glossy; 
the stems and branches are normally markedly cuspidate from the 
penicillate apical leaves, though many branches may be without 
this feature; the eS is not at all unlike that of Stereodon eat 
— var. ‘filifor is. The subula of the leaf is usually entire, but 
may be faintly Gatedais The seta is constantly mae vara 
always slightly under 1 em.; it is for the group somewhat stout, 
and is eivare more or less daberiar at the apex, though this may 
at times be very ineconspicu The capsule rese sane that of R. 
amoenum, but has, probably ein ie the base markedly enlarged 
a narrow oe pen passes abruptly below this into the seta. 
‘The perichaetial bracts are erect, with an acuminate-subulate acumen 
which is sharply denticulate. For the differences from R. Dallii and 
R. acutifolium see below 
It is, I believe, a rare species in New Zealand. 
3. Rhaphidostegium Dallii Broth. & Geh. in Oefv. af. Finska Vet.- 
— Foerh. xlii, 115 (1900). 
Dr. Brotherus has kindly sent me a specimen of this; but as 
it was coun fruit, I am dependent on the description "for the 
fruiting characters. Vegetatively it agrees exac etly with R. leucocytus, 
but the seta is described as ‘‘ tenuis, laevissima’’; the inflorescence 
is autoicous, and the perichaetial leaves = integerrimae”’; characters 
