GYMNOSTOMUM LEPTOSTOMUM.
Gyjimostoinum ctmle. cæspitoso subsimplice, foliis oblongis
obtusissimis integerrimis nervosis pilo simplice
terminatis, capsula ovata erecta. ( T a b . CLXIX.)
Leptostomum erectnm. Brown in Linn. Trans, v. 10.
p . 320.
Hab. Novæ Hollandiæ ora orientalis, extra tropicum, in rupes
prope fluvionim ripas in regione montana, ad fluvios Hawkes-
bury et Grose. D . R. Brown.
Caules densissime cæspitosi, inferne tomento ferrugineo obsiti, superne
foìiosi. Folia parva, læte viridia, sub lente punctulata,
dense imbricata, erecta, siccitate tortilia, oblonga, obtusissi-
nia, vix concava, marginibus integerrimis recurvis, nervo valido
ultra apicem in pilum breviusculum flexuosum producto
instructa. Perichælialia angustiora, longiora, marginibus magis
recurvis. Sela unciam longa, flavescens. Capsula erecta,
ovata, fusca, ore paiiliiliiui contracto, intus membrana suberecta
pallide flavescens, margine dentata, longitudinaliter lineata,
lineis subæquidistantibus,intra has lineis transversalibus. Operculum
parvum, hemisphæricum.
Being possessed of better specimens of this than of the other
species of Leptoslomum of Mr. Brown, I was enabled the more
satisfactorily to examine its peristome; and I am clear, in this
species at least, that it is divided by longitudinal and nearly equidistant
lines; an indication of teeth; and indeed the membranous
substance between them at the extremity is produced more or less
in every instance, and is for its whole length transversely striated.
This structure is the more important, because it precisely agrees
with a sketch which I made some years ago of the peristome of
Hedwig’s Bryum mncrocarpum in Mr. Turner’s herbarium; and
it has not escaped the observation of Mr. Brown, that that plant
is very closely allied to his Leptoslomum, and that Hedwig’s figure
of the peristome is probably very incorrect.
To the present species in particular, Bryum macrocarpum is
certainly in other respects very closely allied, particularly in the
upright capsules and the great revolution of the margins of the
leaves. There is, indeed, a very peculiar habit in all the Lepto-
stoma of Mr. Brown.
Fig . 1, tu ft o f p la n ts , nat. size. F ig . 2 , p la n t. F ig . 3 , u p p e r side o f a
leaf. F ig . 4 , u n d e r side of d itto. F ig . 5, p e ric hæ tium . F ig . 6, le af of d itto.
F ig . 7, c a p su le . F ig . 8 , o p e rcu lum . F ig . 9 , p o rtio n of th e p e ristom e .—
magn.
Vol. II.
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