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WILLIAMS: THE GENUS DESMATODON 217 
The specimens of Hyophila fragilis are not fruiting but they 
do not seem to differ from D. Garberi except perhaps in being a 
little more slender. 
9. Desmatodon Sprengelii (Schwaegr.) comb. nov. 
Barbula Sprengelit Schwaegr. Suppl. 2!:64. 1823. 
Plaubelia tortuosa Brid. Bryol. Univ. 1: 522. 1826. 
Weisia Berteriana Spreng. Syst. Veg. 4: 156. 1827. 
Dioicous, the male flower terminal, the short, inner antheridial 
leaves closely surrounding about six large antheridia, one third 
mm. long, with few, filiform paraphyses: fertile plants low, in dusky 
green cushions with simple, slender stems mostly 4-5 mm. long; 
leaves on the stem below rather distant, gradually and slightly 
larger and more crowded toward the apex, incurved when dry, 
widely spreading when moist, the upper about 1 mm. long, ob- 
long linear, with broad, somewhat rounded or broadly acute, 
slightly apiculate and serrulate apex, the margins from a little be- 
low the apex to the middle of leaf or farther, incurved and entire; 
costa stout, often slightly rough on the back near the apex and the 
ventral surface more or less mamillose, vanishing two or three 
cells below the apex of the leaf, in cross-section showing two or 
three guide-cells with an equal number of somewhat smaller cells 
on the ventral side and on the dorsal side.a stereid band with outer 
cells differentiated; cells of upper part of leaf distinct, roundish- 
hexagonal, 6—7 » in diameter, mamillose on the upper side, flat or 
nearly so on the under side, in about the lower fourth of leaf be- 
coming square to short rectangular with colored, slightly thick- 
ened walls as in cells of upper leaf; perichaetial leaves mostly a 
little longer than those of the stem with a somewhat broader, 
loosely clasping base rather gradually narrowed to a not quite 
entire, more acute point; seta erect, about 4 mm. long; capsule 
erect, somewhat fusiform, about 1.5 mm. long without lid, the exo- 
thecal cells rather irregular, two to four times longer than broad, 
with thin walls, the stomata few, near the base; peristome reddish 
brown, the basal membrane extending about the height of the an- 
nulus above the rim, with 16 erect, quite irregular, finely papillose 
teeth of variable length either undivided or more or less divided 
along the median line; lid somewhat obliquely subulate, about 
two thirds the length of the rest of the capsule; spores about Su 
in diameter, pale and smooth; calyptra cucullate, extending about 
alf way down the capsule. [Fic. 9.] 
Type Locatity: Hispaniola (Santo Domingo). 
DistRIBUTION: known only from Santo Domingo and Florida 
(Cape Sable, 1916, J. K. Small). 
