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W E B E R A . E h r h a r t .
Webera sessilis (S c h m id .) L in d b .
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WEBERACEÆ.
Plan ts very short, g reg arious, growing on turfy soil. Lea ve s
lingulate or lan ceolate, nerved, flexuose, crisped when dry, fragile, with
rounded opaque cells in 2— 3 stra ta. Perich. b ra cts larger, c ilia te or
serrate, a ristate w ith the excurrent nerve, membranous ; Caps,
immersed or exserted, subsessile, ovoid, oblique, gibbous ; ca lyp tra
conico-mitriform, entire, sca rce covering the conical acuminate lid ;
peristome none, endostome a pale i6 -p lica te , con ica l membrane ;
spores minute.
This small family of 5 or 6 species has generally been united to
Buxbaumiaceæ, but the only relationship to Buxbaumia lies in the similarity
of the capsule and endostome, for in leaf structure it comes very close to
Tortulaceæ, especially to the- section TovUlla of Mollia. The epicarpic
membrane is thick at the mouth of the capsule, but all the rest is thin and
flaccid, and the capsule wall stands away from the spore sac, being connected
with it by short filaments.
Ehrhart s name must certainly be retained for the genus and not
superseded by that of Mohr. Three years later Hedwig applied the name
Webern to another genus, comprising Bartmmia pomiformis, B. Halleri and
Meesea trichodes— Fund. musc. II, 95 (1782)— and, apparently forgetful of this,
he a third time used it as a genus of mosses for Byyum nutans and pyriforme
in his Musc. frond, i, (1787) ; repeating this in the Sp. muscorum (1801).
But in these two latter works he also founded a genus Pohlia for Bryum
elongatum, a congener of B. nutans, and Lindberg has very cleverly settled
the difficulty by maintaining the original genus Webera of Ehrhart, and
transferring the third genus of that name to Pohlia of Hedwig.
W E B E R A E h r h a r t .
(H a n n . m a g , 1 7 7 9 , p. 257.)
T h e only genus and therefore the ch ara c te r is tlie same as th at of
the family.— Der. A fte r G. H. W eb e r , author o f S picil. F l. Goettingens.
WEBERA SESSILIS (Schmid.) Lindh.
Dioicous ; dwarfish, g reg arious. L e a v e s lingulate, entire, with the
nerve vanishing ; p erich. b ra cts ovato-lanceolate, la c in iato-c iliate, nerve
longly aristate. (T . X L I I I . )