New and Interesting South African Mosses. 
207 
boreal region of the old world, four from the higher mountains of tropical 
S. America, and the remainder from the antarctic and subantarctic 
region. 
Psilopilum afro-laevigatum Dixon sp. nov. (PI. XI, fig. 10.) 
P. laevigato (Wahl.) Lindb. (P. glahratum Wahl.) affine ; mmvi^, pus il- 
ium, circa 5 mm. altum ; foliis mollihus, spathulatis, apice late rotundatis, 
patentibus, minus concavis, apice vix vel hand cucuUatis, marginibus plus 
minusve regulariter obtuse dentatis. Cellulae superiores hexagono-rotun- 
•datae, 16-20 fx, parietibus pertenuihus, pellucidae, dorso lenissime pro- 
tuberantes. Lamellae perpaucae (circa 6), marginibus irregulariter crenatis. 
Eosetta, Natal, alt. 4000 ft., Jan. 1915 ; coll. Sim (No. 8068). 
Terminal flowers prove that the plant is full-grown, but the organs are too 
immature for it to be easy to decide if they are the or the 9 plant. In 
either case they present a distinct difference from the European P. laevi- 
gatum. There the inflorescence has the very short, broad, apiculate, 
imbricated scale-like bracts usual in Polytrichum, while the $ inflorescence 
is not rosette-shaped, nor indeed at all enlarged, with only one or two floral 
leaves. Here the flower is rosette-shaped and forms a distinct, enlarged 
■comal tuft, but the leaves are of normal, stem-leaf form, only longer, not 
imbricated and scale-like, as in the usual inflorescence of the genus. 
For the nomenclature of the northern species of the genus cf. Hagen, 
* Forarbejder til en Norsk Lovmosflora, Polytrichaceae,' and ' Bryologist,' 
xix, p. 70. 
Psilopilum Wageri Broth. MS., sp. nov. (PI. XII, fig. 12.) 
Perpusillus ; caulis vix 5 mm. altus ; folia inferiora brevia, late ovato- 
lanceolata, patula ; superiora angustiora, longiora, erecto-patentia, perichae- 
tialia erecta ; omnia late acuminata, suhohtusa, apice cucidlato, valde concava, 
marginibus involutis, integerrimis vel leyiissime sinuatis ; lamellae paucae 
(circa 5), marginibus integris vel hie illic leniter crenatis. Cellulae 
superiores subrotundatae, 13-16 latae, valde incrassatae. Costa subper- 
currens, dorso glabra. Seta 5-7 mm. alta, rubra ; theca parva, 2-2-5 mm. 
longa, ovalis, curvata, asymmetrica, aetate compressa ; peristomium 60-70 /x 
altum, dentibus 32, remotiusculis, triangularibus, inaequalibus, acutis, 
aurantiacis. Operculum, calyptra, ignota. Exothecii cellulae hexagonae, 
omnes fere isodiametricae, parietibus tenuibus, orificium versus sensim 
minores, incrassatae. 
Eydal Mount; coll. H. A. W. (No. 45), c. fr. 
This species will readily be separated from the last by the characters 
italicised. It is perhaps most nearly allied to the northern P. cavifolium 
(Wils.) (P. tschuctschicum [C. M.], Par.), of which it has the small size, 
the entire leaves and entire or only faintly and obtusely sinuate-crenate 
margin of lamellae ; but it differs in certain marked structural characters, 
especially of the sporophyte. 
