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MY À ‘.Or„XAGYMNOSTOMUM
XANTHOCARPUM.
Gymnostomum caule densissime cæspitoso fastigiatim
ramoso, foliis patentibus lineari-lanceolatis, seta longiuscula,
capsula ovato-sphærica, operculo longirostro
curvato. (Tab. CLIII.)
Hab. In Nepal. Hon. D . Gardner.
Caules cæspites densos efform.mtes, sesquiuneiale.s, erecti, ramosi,
ramis fastigiatis. Folia liirido-viridia, patentia,lineari-lanceolata,
planiuscula, mollia, integerrima, nervo ad apicem attingente
percursa. Perichcetialia subulato-ianceolata. Seta se-
miimciam longa, erecta, flava. Capsida pulcherrime flava,
lævis, ovato-sphærica, ore truncato, membrana horizontali co-
lumellæ affixa, elaiisa. Calyptra subulata, dimidiata. Operculum
e basi plano convexa, subulatum, capsula subæque longum,
rostro curvato. Semina minutissima, hyalina.
It has been already remarked in the Muse. B rit. (p. 9.) that
some species of Gymnostomum are furnished with a horizontal
membrane, and that in one species, G. Griffithianum, it is not
unfrequently entire. Such too is remarkably the case in the present
plant, where it is most clearly the flattened and dilated summit
oi' the columella. {Fid. i. l(i.) Another peculiarity in this
moss is the smallness of the seminal bag, which does not occupy
one half of the cavity of the capsule. It is united above to the
lower edge of the horizontal or dilated summit of the columella,
and there bursts, when the seeds are discharged. So delicate is the
structure of the capsule, that the seminal bag may be clearly seen
through it when held between the eye and the light.
As a species, the G.xanthocarpumwWl rank near to G. curvi-
rostrum, differing, besides the circumstances above noticed, in
the form of the leaves.
Fig. 1, tuft of plants ; and Fig. 2, single plant, nat. size.
Fig. 3, 3, leaves. Fig. 4, perichætial leaf. Fig. .5, capsule with
its operculum and calyptra. Fig. 6, capsule. Fig. 7, operculum.
Fig. 8, calyptra. Fig. 9, capsule cut open to show the seminal
bag and the columella terminating in a horizontal membrane.
Fig. 10, columella. Fig. 11, seeds.—magn.
VoL.JI.