MUSCI. — W. MITTEN. 
19 
anguste attenuate, integerrima, nervo angusto percursa, cellulis elongatis alaribus 
in auriculam parvam fuscam clispositis areolata ; pericboetialia brevia, pai’va, ovata, 
convoluta, in acumen subulatum producta. Theca in pcdunculo gracili foliis 
caulinis dimidio l)reviorc erccta, parva, ovalis ; opcrculo subulato oblique demum ore 
dilatato cyatliiformi fusca ; peristomii dentibus teneris ; calyptra parva, dimidiata. 
Flos masculus foliis propriis perichactialibus similibus inclusus. 
Kerguelen Island, Moseley. 
This is the species mentioned in the Flora Antarctica, p. 128, under Weissm 
contecta, as being present in the Hookerian Herbarium, its habitat unknown. 
In compact, but not coherent tufts. Stems fastigiately branched, about an inch 
high. Foliage shining, but little altered in direction wet or dry. The minute 
capsule is scarcely conspicuous amongst the leaves. Leaves at the tops of the stems 
yellowish green, below brown, erect or slightly falcate, al)out 24 - lines long, com- 
posed of elongate cells with pellucid Avails ; nerve pale brown and with the pagina 
gradually attenuated into a A'cry narrow flat entire point ; alary cells at the angles 
of the base distinct, brown, forming sub-quadrate masses. Leaves of the perichae- 
tium 4—.') as long as those of the stem, and quite concealed amongst them. Seta 
about 1 line long, straight, pale browm. Capsule as it reaches maturity appearing 
to pass from oval to nearly globular; after the fall of the operculum by the 
dilatation of its mouth it becomes cyathiform, with no distinct neck. Operculum 
with a very oblique subulate beak which is longer than the capsule. Peristome- 
teeth very thin, broad at base, nan-owed upwards into entire points; transverse 
articulations remote. Calyptra small, coriaceous, brownish, scarcely reaching the 
base of the operculum. Male inflorescence in a small bud below the base of the 
perichaetium. 
Tab. III., Fig. ii. : 1, plant of natural size ; 2, cauline leaf ; 3, perichgetium with 
comal leaf, capsule, and male flower ; 4, old capsule ; 5, portion of peristome ; all 
magnified. 
3. Blindia contecta, Ilook. f. 8f Wils. Flor. Antarct. 404 t. 58, f. 3. 
(Weissia). 
Christmas Harbour, on rocks, barren, Hooker. 
In this species the perichaetium is composed of enlarged leaA'cs as in Stylosteginm, 
Schimp., but the capsule aaIucIi is immersed has a peristome.* 
* These three species afford some considerations respecting their mode of fructification. The genus 
Blindia, Bruch et Schimp., at first included only the European B. acuta, with the “ perichtetium vaginans 
distinctum,” the perichajtial leaves being as large as the cauline and dilated below. To this was added by 
C. Muller (in the Synopsis) B. cccspiticia, which had been made into the genus Stylostegium in the 
Bryologia Europea, differing from Blindia in its gymnostomous capsule immersed in enlarged but not 
vaginant perichaetial leaves, in these particulars analogous to some species of Grimmia of the section Sc/iis- 
tidium, in which B. ccBspiticia had itself sometimes been placed. The distinction between Blindia and 
Stylostegium is reduced by the presence of a peristome in B. contecta (which may be said to be a Styloste- 
gium with a peristome) by the immersed capsule in Stylostegium, and the exserted one in Blmdia. In B. 
c 2 
