48 ENCALYPTACEAE 



Family 12. ENCALYPTACEAE 



The mosses of this family grow on soil or stones and are erect 

 and usually caespitose. The leaves in our species are broad and 

 Ungulate or spatulate; lower leaf cells thin-walled and hyaline; 

 upper cells small, dense and opaque, bearing strong verrucose 

 papillae. The extinguisher-like calyptra is the most charac- 

 teristic thing about the family, artd because of it these mosses 

 are often called Extinguisher Mosses. The members of this 

 family belong in the single genus. 



ENCALYPTA Schreb. 



which is so much like some species of the Tortulaceae that 

 Brotherus in "Die Planzenfamilien" makes it only a subfamily 

 of the Tortulaceae. In many respects our species strongly 

 resemble the species of Tortula. The leaves are large and 

 tongue-shaped and are twisted when dry, but the costa is little 

 or not at all excurrent. In fruit, the peristome and the char- 

 acteristic calyptra are enough to render identification easy, in 

 sterile plants the beginner might make a mistake. The plants 

 are much too large to be confused with Desmatodon, and the 

 percurrent or barely excurrent costa distinguishes from all of 

 our species of Tortula except T. papulosa, which has simple 

 papillae, or T. mucronifolia, which has no papillae at all. 



In Encalypta we have a curious combination of peristome 

 characters; the striking similarity of the calyptra and leaves 

 in the various species makes it certain that no mistake is made 

 in putting them all in one genus; yet within the limits of this 

 one genus we have almost all degrees of completeness of the 

 peristome, from none at all to one highly developed and double. 

 Some of the peristomes show a strong likeness to the nemato- 

 dont type, while in E. procera there is an almost typical arthro- 

 dont double peristome. 



Leaves apiculate to acuminate ciliata 



Leaves obtuse streptocarpa 



E. ciliata (Hedw.) Hoffm. "Wet rocks near Haverstraw, 

 N. Y.," Muse. App. 174. 



