AULACOMNIACEAE 6 1 



Family 17. TIMMIACEAE 



Tall robust mosses resembling Polytrichum in appearance 

 when sterile; growing in deep loose tufts on soil and rocks. 

 Leaves lanceolate from an appressed sheathing base, serrate 

 above, strongly costate to apex, but costa much narrower than 

 in Polytrichum, and entirely without lamellae; leaf cells small, 

 round-hexagonal, smooth or rarely lightly papillose. Calyptra 

 cucullate; seta long; capsules often somewhat wrinkled when 

 dry, but scarcely plicate or sulcate, when fresh resembling those 

 of Mnium and Bryum. Peristome like that of Mnium, except 

 that the inner is composed of cilia only, which are grouped 

 together in fours. 



TIMMIA Hedw. (Our only genus) 



T. cucullata Mx. (as T. megapolitana Hedw.). Yonkers, E. C. 

 Howe (Bx.)!; "Banks of ravines, Northern N. J.," Muse. App. 

 227; Pascack, N. J., Austin, Bx! 



Family 18. AULACOMNIACEAE 



Intermediate between the Bartramiaceae and the Mniae, 

 with some characters of the Meeseaceae. From the Mniae it 

 differs in the much smaller papillose leaf cells and in having 

 the capsule regularly striate or sulcate when dry. From the 

 Bartramiaceae it differs in the larger broader leaves and the 

 more elongated and less unsymmetrical capsules with well- 

 developed cilia in the inner peristome. It differs from the 

 Meeseaceae, except Paludella, in the perfectly developed peri- 

 stome, less conspicuous neck of the capsule, and the papillose 

 leaf cells. 



AULACOMNIUM Schwaegr. 



Usually caespitose, growing on soil in moist woods or in bogs ; 

 green above; often brown or brownish green below; stems often 

 densely matted with radicles. Leaves large, strongly costate 

 nearly or quite to the apex; leaf cells small, rounded, strongly 

 thickened at the angles (collenchymatous), in most species 

 strongly papillose on both sides, each cell bearing a single 



