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LEPTODONTIUM Hpe. Linn. 20; 70, 1847. 
Plants in loose, weak, yellowish-green tufts. Stems tomentose or 
scarcely radiculose, branched or bifurcating. Leaves not crowded, spread- 
ing or curled when dry, recurved when moist, keeled, lanceolate; base ellip- 
tic or ovate ; margins entire and recurved below, irregularly serrate above ; 
costa pecurrent or ending below the apex; cells elongated rectangular at 
base, rounded, hexagonal above, minutely papillose on both sides. Dioicous, 
often sterile and propagating by buds or brittle branches. Seta erect, single 
or several from the long sheathing perichaetium ; capsule erect, cylindric, 
smooth ; annulus double ; peristome arising below the mouth, without basal 
membrane; teeth smooth, nodose, bifid or split; lid conic or rostrate; 
calyptra ? 
Fifty-seven species of which 37 are American, of which 5 occur in 
Mexico. First record for North America of this genus. 
Type species L. squarrosum from India and Africa. 
Leptodontium excelsus (Sull.) E. G. Britton, comb. nov. 
Syrrhopodon? excelsus Sull. Musci All. 41. 1848. 
Zygodon Sullivantii C. M. Syn. 1: 679, 1849. 
Amphoridium Sullivantii L. & J. Man. 159. 1884. 
Zygodon excelsus E. G. Britton Mem. Torrey Bot. Club. 4: 180. 1893, not 
C. M. Linn. 42: 369, 1878. 
Plants slender, erector pendent; stems dark-colored, simple or branched* 
4-10 cm. long, with filiform innovations; leaves distant, light yellow at apex 
of stems, curled and twisted when dry, spreading when moist, 1.5-2 mm. 
long, carinate, lanceolate-acuminate, decurrent at base: margins entire and 
recurved below, serrate above; vein smooth, not keeled, ending in a subulate 
point, often radiculose at apex: cells thickened, minutely papillose, basal 
elongated, oblong and smooth, generally yellow. Flowers and fruit 
unknown! Propagating by rooting at the apex of the leaves or by brittle 
branchlets. 
Type locality: Grandfather Mountain, North Carolina, Sullivant. 
Distribution: On rocks and twigs on the summits of Grandfather, 
Chestnut Bald and Black Mountains, North Carolina. Also on spruce 
trees, White Top, Virginia, and mountains of Georgia, Lesquereux, 1850. 
Paris Index 1: 32. 1903, cites Amphoridium Sullivantii from “Prom. 
Breton.” We know of no record of this species except from the Southern 
Alleghanies. 
Exsiccatae: Sull. Musci All. 170. 1848. Sull. & Lesqx. Musci Bor. Am. 
No. 114. 1856. No. 169. 1865. 
Illustrations: Sull. leones Muscorum 1: 51 t, 32. 1864. 
The illustrations of the winged costa, Sullivant’s leones PI. 32, f. 13, 
appears to be incorrect. Mitten placed this species in his herbarium with L. 
brevisetum from Mexico, but it differs from our plant in being stouter with 
more squarrose leaves and different cell structure, etc. 
New York Botanical Garden. 
