146 
NEW ARRANGEMENT OF 
Char. Diff. Theca cum seta decidua ; calyptra magna 
persisfens. 
Fritct. The calyptra is dimidiate, as long, or even 
longer, than the theca, and persistent ; while it is attached 
by the base, it is nearly cylindrical, entire, and of a yelloT\'- 
ish-brown colour ; as the theca becomes old, it changes to 
campanulato-conical, and is of a greyisli hue, slender, 
smooth, unfurrowed, splitting from the bottom upwards on 
one side, but entire above, and so closely cemented to the 
theca, that it remains attached till maturity, and is not even 
then loosened, unless by injuries caused by the vicissitude 
of the seasons. The seta is terminal, from eight to fourteen 
lines in length, erect, and smooth, but sometimes shghtly 
twisted ; of a purpUsli-red colour, and " dilated under the 
theca, into a funnel-shaped solid disk,'^ of which the theca 
is a continuation. There is no apophysis, unless the above 
mentioned disk beneath the theca can be considered as such. 
The tlieca is entire, more or less ovate, smooth, when ma- 
ture here and there collapsed and wrinkled, of a reddish- 
brown colour, and clothed with the calyptra ; it is never 
dehiscent, but falls along with its seta, whose base is putri- 
fied and corroded by a superabundance of moisture. The 
operculum, which is, as it were, firmly bound to the theca 
(from which it differs, in being of a looser texture), is 
oblique and attenuated. There isno peristome. The co/u^ 
meUa is large, a little shorter than the theca, oblong, ob- 
tuse, whitish, and cellular. The sporuJes, viewed in the 
mass, are of a greyish-green colour, very plentiful, extreme- 
ly minute, spherical, smooth, apparently tri-quadri-k>cular, 
or as if three or four smaller sporules were cemented io^ 
gether. 
