■ 5 — 
It may be of interest to notice the variety of species and genera which 
have been included under Neckera up to 1850 when it was reduced to its 
natural limits by Schimper. Bridel (1801) described fifteen species, adding- 
some belonging to Cryphaea and Climacium , to those previously included 
by Hedwig. In 1819 Bridel divided the genus into two sections, including 
the species of modern authors in his section Distichici, and placing species 
of Anomodon and Cy lindrothecium under Neckera. In the Bryologia Uni- 
versalis (1827) he added another section to the genus and kept the species 
of Neckera under Distichia. Carl Muller took up Distichia as a genus and 
described an African species in 1890. 
The genus Eleutera was founded by Beauvois (1805) as a substitute for 
Neckera because he did not believe in naming genera after persons so he 
substituted a name applied to Diana! He listed seven species belonging to 
Anomodon, A?ititrichia and Neckera, of which five had been included in 
Neckera by Hedwig, adding two species of Cy lindrothecium. 
Schimper, in the Bryologia Europsea, 1850, figured and described five 
species of Neckera: pennata, oligocarpa , pumila , crispa and complanata , 
thus bringing the genus into its natural limits, and most subsequent authors 
have followed him. 
But for comprehensiveness and amplification of the genus Neckera , Carl 
Muller exceeded all others, for in 1851, a year after the publication of the 
fascicle on Neckera in the Bryologia Europsea, he described one hundred and 
fifty-two species with nine sections and thirteen subsections including, accord- 
ing to his own statement, the following genera: Braunia, Hedwigidium, 
Entodon , Dichelyma, Leucodon, Asterodontium , Antitrichia , Sclerodon- 
tium , Hedwigia , Harrisonia , Leptodon , Lasia, Isothecium, Rhy stophy llurn , 
Climacium , Pterigynandrum , Leptohymenium , Pilotrichum and parts of 
Leskea , Hypmnn, and Eontinalis. It is one of the subsections, Cryphcea- 
delphus , which M. Cardot has recently raised to generic rank to replace 
Braxhelyma Sch. If all the old sectional and subsectional names which 
antedate generic names are to be hunted up there will be no end to the 
changes and the work necessary to get questions of priority correctly deter- 
mined ! 
Jaeger in the Adumbratio (1S75— 76) recognized one hundred and four 
species and two sections of the genus, Paraphysanthus Spruce, and Rhysto- 
phyllum Ehrh., and included in the latter five species recognized by Schim- 
per, adding Menziesii and Douglasii. Paris, in the Index, recognizes one 
hundred and fifty-eight species of Neckera . of which fifty are American and 
twenty-five are North American and West Indian. 
The validity of Ehrhart's genera is being recognized, and Brotherus in 
the Pflanzenfamilien adopts Georgia , Catharine a, and Web era and rele- 
gates to synonymy Tetr aphis. A trichum, Weber a Hedw. and Diphyscium 
Ehrh. and we believe that Rhy stophy llum Ehrh. also has valid claims. 
Rhystophyllum Ehrh. Beitr. 149, 1789, Crypt. Exsic. No. 97. 1780. 
Neckeria Hedw. Fund. 93. 17S2 in part. 
Leskea Hedw. Fund. 93. 17S2 in part. 
