—42— 



Club 24: 427. 1897) is probably nearer the mark in assigning the group a posi- 

 tion midway between Anomodon and Thuidium. In 1893 MM. Renauld and 

 Cardot in their Muse. Am. sept, raised Claopodium to the rank of a genus, and it 

 has also been adopted by Dr. Brotherus (in Engler and Prantl, Die Natiirlichen 

 Pflanzenfamilien), who omits C. laxifolium (Schwgr.) and includes C. Bolanderi 

 Best and a few species from southern and eastern Asia. No species has been 

 accredited to Europe, though the existence in Portugal of a plant which obviously 

 belongs to this genus has been known for some time. 



In the year 1866 Count von Solms Laubach spent some months in Algarve, 

 the southermost province of Portugal, exploring the moss flora; especially that 

 of the Serra de Monchique, the results of which he embodied in his Tentamen 

 Bryo-Geographiae Algarviae Regni Lusitani Provinciae (Hals, 1868). Among 

 the mosses enumerated by him as occurring in this district was a plant which 

 he referred to Thuidium punctulatum DeNot. The plant was found in the warm 

 open parts of a chestnut wood near the town of Monchique, growing on the ground 

 in dense sterile tufts strongly reminding him of Anomodon attenuatus. The 

 identification of the plant with Thuidium punctulatum is a little curious, as the 

 branching and leaves of that plant are very different and, being monoicous, it 

 is fairly often in fruit; moreover its resemblance to the Anomodon is not very 

 striking. The Algarvian plant was subsequently dealt with by Schimper in the 

 second edition of his Synopsis (1876) and is doubtfully referred by him to Leskea 

 as Leskea? algarvica. 



Subsequently authors have not added much to our knowledge of the plant; 

 Limpricht (2: 766) points out that it is doubtless a Thuidium as Milde had 

 already distinguished it in his herbarium. Roth practically contents himself 

 with quoting Limpricht and admits that he had not seen the plant. Indeed its 

 rarity in herbaria has, no doubt, been one of the principal causes of the lack of 

 recognition of its true affinities. 



In May 191 1, I spent about three weeks in Portugal in company with Mr. 

 H. N. Dixon, F. L. S., mostly at Caldas de Monchique in Algarve. Here we 

 found Solms Laubach's plant, not only in the dry chestnut woods where he originally 

 found it, but also and far more luxuriantly in the dry bed of a small torrent nearer 

 Caldas de Monchique, where for a short distance it practically carpeted the 

 bed and banks of the torrent. We also found the same plant sparingly at Bus- 

 saco and by the banks of a little streamlet at Louza near Coimbra, from which 

 it would seem that it has a fairly wide distribution in Portugal. 



On examination of this plant on my return I recognized affinities with Claopo- 

 dium Whippleanum (Sull.) Ren. and Card., and Mr. Dixon, on my referring to 

 him, concurred in its belonging to Claopodium and suggested that it was perhaps 

 nearer to C. leuconeurum (Sull. and Lesq.) Ren. and Card. M. Cardot himself, 

 to whom the plant was submitted, also agreed in referring it to Claopodium and 

 this has also been accepted by Mrs. Britton. Dr. Best, to whom the plant has 

 been submitted by Dr. Grout, goes further and says that he is unable to dis- 

 tinguish our plant from C. leuconeurum, which in turn he considers doubtfully 

 distinct from C. Whippleanum. This latter view of his is quoted, apparently 

 with approval, by Dr. Brotherus [Die Nat. Pflanzenf. (Muse.) 1009]. 



