* * Flowers monoecious ; maie plants gemmiforrn, axillary.
3. P. alte rn ifo lium , Brid., iu part. Plants cespitose, at
first simple and erect, after a year becoming prostrate and
branching in long flagelliform innovations : comal leaves
enlarged at tlie ovate base, abruptly narrowed into a slender
awl-shaped slightly serrulate point, filled by the stout excnrrent
costa : capsule ovate or subglobose, obliquely apiculate :
calyptra split to near the acuminate apex. — Bryol. Eur. t. 10.
Phascum alternifolium, Sulliv. Mosses of U. States, 15.
Var. L an c a s trie n s e , Sulliv. Æ Lesq. Leaves longer;
areolation more dense : capsule more obtuse : spores larger.__
Muse. Bor.-Am. Exsicc. (ed. 1), n. 30.
Var. ro b u s tum , Sulliv. & Lesq. Plants twice as long as in
the common form: comal leaves shorter: spores large. — Same,
n. 31. Archidium Lescurii, Aust. Bull. Torr. Club, vi. 144.
Hab. Open fields, on sandy and clayey ground ; very common.
The first variety at Lancaster, Ohio, with Bruchia Sidlivantii ; the last
on the Raccoon Mountains, Alabama, in humid depressions on sandstone
rocks, witli Bruchia SuHivantti, var. nigricans [Lesquereux).
4. P. S u lliv an tii, Aust. Plants gregarious : stems rigid,
julaceous ; innovations filiform, nearly as long as the stems :
leaves closely imbricate and appressed, the lower ovate-
mucronate, denticulate, the upper enlarged, longer pointed,
obscurely serrate ; perichætial leaves much longer, oblong-ovate,
abruptly cuspidate, erose-serrate above ; costa thick, percurrent
or excurrent : capsule large, round-ovate, short-pedicellate, obtusely
mamillate ; calyptra large, campanulate, obtusely acumin-
• 6te.—Bull. Torr. Club, vi. 142. Phascum nervosum, Drumm.
Coll. n. 6; Sulliv. Mosses of U. States, 16. Pleuridium nervosum,
Sulliv. Icon. Muso. 19, t. 10.
Hab. Pennsylvania {Drummond) ; South Carolina, on light sandy soil
(Ravenel). Phascum nervosum, Hook., a species of the Cape of Good
Hope, is evidently different.
5. P . Bolanderi, Muell. Leaves long-lanceolate and subulate,
minutely denticulate from the middle upward, with a pale
excurrent costa: capsule ovate, obliquely apiculate, short-
pedicellate; calyptra dimidiate, often split, blackened at the
apex. — Jaeger, Muse. Cleist. 32.
Hae. Near San Francisco, California (Bolander).
Distinguislied from other species of tlie genus by the leaves obscurely
serrulate from the middle upward, by the pale costa, the short-pedicellate
capsule, and the top of the calyptra appearing as if burned.
7. MICROBRYUM, Schimp.
Plants very small, gregarious or subcespitose, gemmiforrn.
Leaves more closely areolate, strongly costate, minutely papillose
on the back. Flowers monoecious : antheridia very small
in the axils of the comal leaves. Capsule ovate, obtusely apiculate,
erect upon a short pedicel. Calyptra reaching to the
middle of the capsule, plurilobate, split on one side.
1. M. Floerkeanum, Schimp. Leaves open, erect, slightly
curved back at the top ; the lower small, ovate-apioulate, costate
to the middle, more densely areolate ; the upper broadly
ovate, mucronate by the stiff brown sharp point of the excurrent
costa ; cells of the areolation at base loose and hyaline, in the
upper part small, yellowish-chlorophyllose. — Syn. Muso. 11.
P h a s c u m F loerkeanum, yd db. & Mohr; Schwaegr. Suppl. 1.3,
t. 3. Acaulon Floerheanum, Muell. ; Bryol. Eur. t. 3.
H a b . Very rare; found in Illinois by E. Hall, a few plants only,
mixed with Pottia i
8. BRUCHIA, Schwaegr. (PI. 1.)
Plants gregarious, short, simple or sparingly dichotomous.
Stem-leaves small, distant, the upper and comal crowded, much
longer, all costate to the apex; basilar areolation hexagonal-
rectangular, narrower upward. Capsule with a long solid
collum (without collum in P. pcdustris), oval, rostellate, emerging
on a more or less elongated pedicel. Calyptra thin, lobate
or lacerate at base, mitriform.
1. B. p a lu s tris , Muell. Hypogynous: plants cespitose:
lower leaves distant, ovate-lanceolate, narrowly costate; the
upper and comal much longer, abruptly narrowly subulate from
a lanceolate base; costa stout, excurrent into a long semi-
cylindrical awn: antheridia naked in the axils of perichætial
leaves : capsule rather large, ovate-acuminate, pale yellow.
Syn. 1. 19. Pleuridium palustre, Bryol. Eur. t. 10. Phascum
palustre, Sulliv. Mosses of U. States, 16. Sporledera palustris,
Schimp.
H a b . Sandy soil; rare. Louisiana (Drummond); Burlington, New
Jersey (James).