^OTES ON RACOMITRIUM PAPILLOSUM. 



By G. LimprichTj 

 In " Flora," 1882, N. 13.— Translated, 



Racomitrium papillosum, Kindherg ; Warnstorf in " Hedwigia,'^ 

 1881, n. 11. According to the text of this publication, it appears to 

 be uncertain who really is answerable, as author, for this species. 

 I'his form, recently published as a distinct species " which should 

 represent an intermediate form between Racomitrium patens and 

 Racomitrium sudeticum, is, according to original specimens before me^ 

 the sterile form of Grimmia elatior, Br. and Sch., as it occurs in 

 different stations in the Sudeten ; on the Baliagora ; in Scotland ; 

 Norway ; and the Alps on much exposed rocks. 



I have previously made the remark (in the Kryptfl. von Schl : I. p. 

 160), that there are two forms of this species, and we also find that 

 previous writers have had their attention drawn to this particular 

 Variety. Schimper referred this form to Grimmia Schultzii ; C. Miiller 

 to Grimmia funalis ; C. Hartmann earlier considered it as Grimmia 

 funalis^ elatior \ and De Notaris (in Syllab. n. 333), distinguished it 

 as Grimmia funalis rohusta. 



Sometimes it approaches nearer to Grimmia Schultzii (in this form 

 it is generally fertile), sometimes it agrees more with Grimmia funalis, 

 and in this form I only know it barren. 



The possibility that both forms should be specifically distinct 

 appeared to me to be inadmissible. 



Hitherto, nothing has been published with regard to some of the 

 characters of Grimmia elatior, and this omission appears to me to have 

 led to the creation of Racomitrium papillQSum. 



The upper part of the leaf of Grimmia elatior consists of a double 

 layer, our Silesian specimens even having three and four layers (hence 

 the opacity of the cell structure), and both sides of the thickened leaf, 

 as also the oval carina (as is seen by a cross section), are covered with 

 semi-circular papillae, rising from the lumen of the cell. In the fertile 

 specimens from the Alps, this thickening extends over a smaller portion 

 of the leaf, and the cuticle is as rule smooth, but there are specimens 

 now lying before me which show the papillae, therefore I consider the 

 dark-green mostly sterile Silesian form, and those of the north of 

 Europe to be var. pseudo funalis. Schimper, in the " Syn. ed. II," p. 

 259, has, in the accompanying note more correctly described the teeth 

 of the peristome of Grimmia elatior, than in the text of the diagrams, 

 N. S., YoL. VIII.— Aug., 1882. 



