- 63 - 



is satisfactory in so far as its identity with 5. uncula may be considered es- 

 tablished." 



" From all other species of the genus, 5. /'r/j/zV>^£'z^(?i- is distinguished by 

 the exothecium of the capsule pus tu lose in the dry state (as e. g.. in 



Mniobryun carneum,) and by the projecting columella, which latter charac- 

 ter is apparently entirely new in this genus. Further, it is an intermediate 

 form between S. tristicha with which it shares the sterile branches with tris- 

 tichous leaves^ and 5. c ale are a with which it shares leaf form. From the 

 former it is distinguished, besides the above cited characters, by its much 

 shorter leaves and the entire structure of the fruit, by the color, thickness, 

 length and bend in the seta, by the absence of the neck and the form of the 

 capsule, by the longer teeth and smaller spores ; from the latter it stands dis- 

 tinct by the tristichous leaves, the curved seta, the absence of neck on capsule, 

 the longer teeth and somewhat larger spores." 



tristicha is not found in Norway, and must be struck from the 



Flora." 



It is thus clear that the Vermont Seligeria by misunderstanding referred 

 to 5. tristicha, the Norwegian plant so-called up to a recent date, must with 

 it be referred to ^\ tristichoides Kindb., as var. laxa: Seligeria tristichoides 

 laxa. 



In a letter from Dr. Hagen received since writing the above, this author 

 expresses his judgment that this plant is specifically distinct from i\ tri- 

 tichoides ''heQSinse of the longer, distant, and scabrous leaves, peristome 

 teeth shorter and inserted nearer the mouth, etc. (Columella not elong- 

 ated!)" He urges that it has been described before as 5. trifaria patula 

 Lindb. in Oefv. af K. Vet. Skand. Foerh. 1864, p. 189: "Leaves and peri- 

 chaetial bracts erect-opeh, narrowed into a rather long subrecurved, 

 minutely crenulate subula, with cells smaller, filled with chlorophyll, those 

 of the subula quadrate." Dr. Hagen states that this rare plant is known 

 only from a single locality, the Swedish Island of Gotland in the Baltic Sea. 

 He generously sent me a few sterile stems of it, with the note that "the 

 pedicel is much shorter than that of the true 5. tristicha, and the capsule 

 seems to be shorter and broader." He also enclosed an abundant specimen 

 of S tristichoides Kindberg, collected by himself. 



From all this it is clear that Lindberg, when he referred the Gotland plant 

 to 5. trifaria {S. tristicha) had before him the Norwegian plant, not the one 

 from other'parts of Europe, For with that it is evidently related as a variety, 

 it seems to me. And he would doubtless have wrilten S. tristichoides 

 patula, had he recognized the specific distinctness of the Norwegian Selig- 

 ergia from 5. tristicha. 



After a close comparison of leaves from this var. patula, with those from 

 the American plant in question, I admit that there is good ground for Dr. 

 Hagen urging the identity of the two plants: shape, areolation, and disposi- 

 tion of leaves on the stem is strikingly similar. I note, however, a slight 

 difference in the leaf apex : the American plant has a shorter apical cell, and 

 the costa runs clear up to it ; the Swedish plant has a longer apical cell, and 



