ovate, cylindric.al, slender, contracted at the orifice; pedicel
comparatively long (about two c.m.) ; lid long and subulate-
rostrate ; teeth short, robust, lanceolate, obtuse, with two or
three prominent articulations.—Mosses of U. States, 103, and
Icon. Muse. Suppl. 32, t. 20.
IlAis. San Marcos, Texas {Wright, v lio first collected the moss,
though sterile); Southern States, from North Carolina to Florida, not
rare.
The leaves often bear at the apex a duster of oblong articulate bodies,
like those of Aulacomnium palustre.
Tkibk VI. TETRAPHIDEiE.
Plants loosely tufted. Stems slender, erect or very short.
Lower leaves very small, distant, squamiform, the upper longer,
close and tufting at the apex of the stems. Flowers moncB-
cioiis, terminal, tlio male gemmiforrn. Calyptra conical,
mitrate. Capsule cylindrioal or oval. Peristome formed of the
operculum filled with cellular matter and cleft into four parts.
Annulus none. Spores very small.
The Tetraphidex, Disceliecc and Schistostegece constitute three peculiar
groups with no marked analogy to any otlier tribe of mosses. The
first are related by the calyptra to the Orthotrichex, and by the form and
areolation of the leaves to the Bnjcce. Tlie growth of the BisceliecE is
that of Ephemerum; their peristome like that of Trematodon. Ilampe
considers Disceiium nudum as an annual Bartramia. Tlie Schistostegem
have the soft texture of the Splachnem, and for that reason are considered
by Schimper as most nearly related to that tribe.
62. TETRAPHIS, Hedw. (PL 2.)
Stems long, branching by innovations from under the apex.
Leaves broadly lanceolate, costate to below the apex. Calyptra
covering the capsule to the middle. Capsule cylindrical, borne
on a long straight or geniculate pedicel. Teeth attached below
the orifice, somewhat long, striate on the back, reddish. —
Georgia, Ehrh.
1. T. pellucida, Iledw. Tufts yellowish green: perigonium
often deformed, cup-shaped, of broad truncate leaves, enclosing
small lenticular greenish hyaline short-pedicellate bodies :
calyptra very thin, whitish below, more solid and reddish above:
i r
capsule greenish when filled, brown with age ; pedicel smooth,
twisted to the left in the lower part, to the right above.—
Fund. Muse. ii. 87, t. 7, f. 32, and Spec. Muse. 45, t. 7 ; Bryol.
Eur. t. 196. Mnium pellucidum, Linn. Sp. PL 1109. Georgia
Mnemosynum, Ehrh. ; Muell. Syn. i. 180. G. pellucida,
Rabenh.
Hab. On decayed trunks in deep woods; common.
2. T. g en icu la ta , Girgens. Differs from the last in the
upper leaves longer and narrower, linear-lanceolate, acuminate,
the perigonium not deformed, and the pedicel geniculate in the
middle. — Milde in Bot. Zeit. xxiii. 155; Schimp. Bryol. Eur.
Suppl. Tetraphis, 1, t. 1.
Hab. Moose Eiver [Lyall] ; Sitka (Bischoff, Bothrock).
63. TETRODONTIUM, Schwaegr.
Plants very small, gregarious. Stems very short, hearing
flowering gemmules at the base of filiform foliate bi-anchlets.
Capsule thick, oval, covered to the base hy a solid calyptra;
pedicel thick, rigid. Teeth short.
1. T. re p an d um , Sclnvaegr. Basilar innovations erect :
leaves ovate-lanceolate, rigid, reddish brown, close and imbricate;
perichætial leaves ovate and oblong, very_ concave,
obscurely costate ; perigonial leaves smaller, thinner, ecostate,
like those of the branchlets; capsule oval, its orifice emarginate
betu'een the teeth ; lid conical, erect, short. — Suppl. ii.
102 ; Bryol. Eur. t. 197. Tetraphis repanda, Funck; Nees in
Sturm’s Deutschl. FL ii, fasc. 17, t.; Schwaegr. Suppl. ii. 21,
t. 107.
H ab. On shaded rocks near the Glen House, and at Dixville Notch,
White Mountains (James) ; very rare.
T kibb VII. DISCELIEÆ.
Plants very small, nearly without stems, gemmiforrn, gregarious,
produced from a persistent prothallium, dioecious.
Leaves ohlong-lanceolate, muticous at the apex, ecostate ;
perichætial leaves longer ; areolation loose, in long hexagonal-
rhomboidal meshes. Male plants in the same prothallium as
the female ones ; antheridia small ; paraphyses numerous, subl‘
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