— 59 — 
and appear crowded in the apical region, becoming withered and indistinguish- 
able in the older parts of the plant. The scales are triangular in form and are 
provided with slime-papillae. Toward the end of the growing period the flat- 
tened stem forms an apical tuber, which persists until the following season and 
then grows out into the cylindrical base of a new stem. The method of growth 
and the formation of the tuber are clearly shown in a figure by Goebel. 1 2 
The antheridia and archegonia of P. Ralfsii are borne on separate plants. 
The yellow antheridia are borne on the upper surface of the thickened median 
portion and show a tendency to be arranged in two longitudinal rows. Some 
but apparently not all of the antheridia are protected by scale-like or tubular 
outgrowths, and these sometimes grow together and form a system “of cham- 
bers, each containing a single antheridium.” The archegonia and associated 
parts are clearly described by Cavers. According to his account a “female 
plant bears several groups of archegonia,’’ protected by “narrow .scales or leaf- 
like outgrowths.” If fertilization takes place in a group, “the perianth begins 
to grow up as a tubular sheath which surrounds the whole group .... 
within the ring of scales.” As it “grows upward some of the scales are carried 
up on its outer surface.” The mature perianth is wide open at the mouth, which 
bears a series of irregular lobes or sharp teeth. 
The spherical capsule is essentially like that of a Fossombronia and splits 
irregularly at maturity. Spores are abundant in the material collected by Miss 
Young and agree closely with the description and figure of Macvicar. 1 They 
are pale brown at maturity and measure 50-60/* in diameter. The whole sur- 
face is covered over by a coarse and regular reticulum formed by anastomosing 
lamellae 6-10/* wide. The meshes are mostly hexagonal and measure 10-16/* 
across, while the lamellae are darker on their edges and very minutely crenulate. 
The elaters have blunt ends and most of them are narrow, measuring 10-14 M 
in diameter; occasional elaters, however, are much broader. It will be seen 
that the spores are strikingly like those of Fossombronia angulosa Raddi. 
6. Nardia fossombronioides (Aust.) Lindb. Acta Soc. Sci. Fenn. 10 : 530. 
1875. Jungermannia fossombronioides Aust. Proc. Acad. Philadelphia for 1869: 
220. [Text figs. 1-7.] 
New Jersey: On rocks along a rivulet, near Closter, C. F. Austin , dis- 
tributed in Hep. Bor.-Amer. 32, as Jungermannia fossombronioides; Englewood, 
M. A. Howe. West Virginia: near Burnt House, /. L. Sheldon 4226, 4233 in 
part, mixed with N. crenuliformis (Aust.) Lindb. Illinois: Canton, J. Wolf 30. 
The range of this interesting species is still incompletely known, and these are 
the only stations which can be cited with certainty. The specimens from Macon, 
Georgia, distributed under this name in Underwood & Cook’s Hep. Amer. 39, 
are sterile and doubtful. 
In Austin’s original description of this rare species he emphasized its most 
distinctive feature, the “large, subcampanulate and multi-plicate perianth.” 
1 Organogr. der Pfl. ed. 2, /. 533 . 1915. 
2 Student’s Handb. British Hep. 79. /. 3 . 1912. 
