Fig. 1. Small tuft of Diphyscium foliosum, natural size. Fig. 2. Single plant o f the same, do. Fig. 3. Single
plant, magn. Fig. 4. Exterior leaf. Fig. 5. Interior, do. Fig. 6 and 7. Perichtetial leaves. Fig. 8. Capsule
removed from the leaves with part of the perichastium, attached to the base of the fruit-stalk. Fig. Q. Calyptra,
removed from the capsule. Fig. 10. Ripe capsule, showing the peristome and the pistilla on the superior portion
of the perichjetium. Fig. 11. Calyptra, retaining a portion o f the columella. Fig. 12. A nearly ripe capsule
longitudinally dissected, showing the seminal sack, lengthened into the columella, and attached to the operculum,
the filaments connecting the seminal sack with the inside of the capsule and the peristomium. Fig. 13. Portion
of the peristome.-—All these from Jig. 3. are more or less highly magnified.
We shall hardly have another opportunity of representing on the same plate two plants which have excited the
interest of museologists in so high degree as those now given. None perhaps have been more ably illustrated ;
. yet it does not seem to have been determined whether or not they should constitute one single genus; nor do they
who have decided upon their being kept separate appear to us to have pointed out those marks which most satisfactorily
entitle them to rank in separate genera.
Before entering, however, more fully on this topic, we shall under tire description of the present species, Diphyscium
Joliosum, take notice of some peculiarities which it has in common with the other, Buxbaumia aphylla.
On the first glance at either of them, the Botanist will not fail to be struck by the oblique direction' of the capsule,
by its unequal sides, and the gibbosity a t its base. I f this capsule should be fully formed, but still containing,
the seeds within the seminal bag, a perpendicular section aided by a good microscope will bring to view a highly
curious structure. The seed-bag, although arrived a t its greatest size, will be found to occupy the centre of the
capsule, a considerable space being left on every side of it empty, except that it is traversed by numerous w'hitish,
branched, jointed, succulent fibres, connecting the seed-bag with the inner paries or wall of the capsule. The base
of the bag is contracted into a narrow neck or fruit-stalk, in itself succulent and fixed into a succulent, green, tuber-
culated bulb a t the very bottom of the capsule. The other extremity of the sack is lengthened out into a columella
(Jig. 13. lower Jig.) ; this is club-shaped a t the point where it is connected with the operculum, to which a portion
o f it not unfrequently remains attached when this latter is removed. Except in being more cylindrical, the seminal
sack takes, very nearly the figure of the capsule, being always more gibbose on that side which corresponds with the
gibbosity of the latter. The colour o f the sack depends much on that of the seeds; if these are green, the membrane
which covers them is so to o ; if by age they are become yellow-brown, the sack partakes of the same colour;
but where it terminates in the operculum it is almost colourless, that p art being entirely destitute of seeds, and cellulose.
This sack presents under a highly magnifying lens a reticulated appearance, as may be seen a t Jig. 13 of
the lower table. I f while young it be cut horizontally, it is seen filled with cellules containing a liquid and granules
(Jig. 14. lower figure), probably the incipient seeds, of which those near the margin alone become fertile.
I t would be curious to ascertain, were it possible, what becomes of the substance forming the cellules in the early
state; for the ripe seeds are quite free and unconnected, yet not separated by any membranous substance, such as
the walls of the cellules appeal- to have been formed of. On the contrary, they occupy a cavity around the columella,
which appears evidently to be nothing more than the remains of the cellular and pulpy substance in which the
seeds have not been perfected, and which, as we may consequently expect, when dry, shrinks up into an angular axis
or columella, as it is called by Hedwig and other museologists. In the lower figure, at fig. 16. is represented the
•seminiferous sack, from which the ripe seeds have been removed to exhibit the central shrivelled columella, of a
browner colour than the coat of the sack.
The internal structure of the sack is probably not essentially different from that in all other mosses; and I cordially
assent to the opinion of my friend Mr. Brown, who observes that “ in some cases the seeds may be formed
in a much greater portion of the columnella than in others; and it is even not improbable that in certain cases its
whole substance may be converted into seeds; or, to speak more accurately, that it may produce seeds even to
the centre, and that the cells in which they were probably formed may be reabsorbed*.”
Thus far the two mosses, which by the older Botanists have been united under the name of Buxbaumia, agree.
They differ strikingly in the subject of the present description, beiDg leafy, having the habit of a Phascum, and being
sessile, whilst Buxbaumia is (what is quite an anomaly in the Order Musci) altogether leafless, and has its capsule
elevated upon a long fruit-stalk. A further difference lies in this latter being furnished with a double peristomium,
while Diphyscium has a single one, notwithstanding that Hedwig and Mohr have maintained a contrary opinion.
The former indeed of these Botanists, speaking of the outer peristome, says “ Buxbaumias sessili .tantum rudi-
menta appendiculorum adsunt;” and Mohr owns that “ Peristomium externum vix ullum;” though he places it
among those which .have a double peristomium, and calls the membranous cone a “ Peristomium interius.”
Hedwig considers this cone to be formed “ ex meris ciliis in membranam integram connexis;” and he adds,
“ sulcos sedecim longitudinales habet.” I have myself seen what appeared to be distinct cilia; but whether they
really were so, or only the plies of the membrane, I could not satisfy myself. (Seejig. 13. o f D ip h .fo l.)
. The same author has ably illustrated, in his “ Theoria,” the young male and female fructification of this species;
and in his “ Fundament urn” has well figured the peristome; but I do not understand the “pecten” of Schmidel,
which that writer has given both in his figure of our Diphyscium foliosum and of Buxbaumia aphylla. (See his
plate, f . 14 and 16, and f . V II.)
Ehrhart, finding the peristome o f this plant to differ from Buxbaumia, made of it the genus JVebera, a name
which has been applied to another family o f mosses, and generally received. Mohr, in his Obseroationes Botanicee,
published a t Kiel in 1803, altered it to Diphyscium, the specific name given by Ehrhart. Palisot de Beauvois has
called it Hymenopogou heterophyllum, a name so much more applicable that we cannot but regret that it was published
subsequently to Mohr’s Obseroationes; which renders it impossible for it to be adopted.
We must not omit to notice the similarity that exists between the membranous peristome o f Leptostomum of
Brown, and of Bryum macrocarpum of Hedwig, and that of our plant. In them, however, the peristomium never
forms a plicate cone, and arises from the internal membrane; whereas in the Diphyscium as well as in Buxbaumia
it originates from within the margin of the external covering of the capsule. In Bryum macrocarpum there is
moreover, according to Hedwig, an outer peristome o f sixteen short teeth.—O f the place o f the genus of this plant
in the system we shall make mention under the next description of Buxbaumia.
Diphyscium foliosum grows in woods and upon the declivities of hills among rocks, principally in subalpine situations.
I have found it in various parts of the Highlands of Scotland, in Cumberland and Westmoreland, particularly
by the road side on the mountains between Patterdale and Ambleside. In Wales it is plentiful, and by no
means uncommon in Ireland. In the South of England it is more r a re ; the only habitat we know of it being on
Bridge- rocks, and the lower part of Harrison’s rocks, near the field, Tunbridge Wells, where it was discovered by
Mr. Forster.—On the Continent it seems, by the numerous Floras in which it finds a place, to be more plentiful
* See a most valuable paper, where the subject of the fructification of mosses is ably treated, by Mr. Brown, in the 10th volume of the
Linnaean Transactions, p. S I 2 — .Professor Richard, too, in his excellent edition of Bulliard’s Dictionnaire EUmentaire de Bolanique, t
Work that js not known a sit deserves to be in this country, has the following remark on the internal structure of the capsules of the
lule (copsulenobis) est d’abord
bstance interne se grenèle finement, se distingue peu à peu du test, et passe enfin à l’état d’une très fine poussière. Assez souvent une
rtion centrale de cette, substance persiste sous la forme a’un axe longitudinal, qu’on appelle columelle. Fréquemment le tissu sous-cutané
!c pollinißre des Linnéistes, a
than with us. We havé ourselves seen it in the greatest abundance and perfection in the forests oh both sides of
the valley of Chamouny in Savoy; and as you ascend the Mont Anvert to go to the Mer de Glace it grows on each
side of tile foot-way.
Without the fruit this moss is not easy to be detected, or it may be passed over for the. shoots of some of the
smaller species of Poly trichum, with which the leaves, in form and colour, have some affinity. These leaves are,
indeed, entirely overlooked by some authors; and the perichcetial ones, which are so totally unlike them, are described
as the entire foliage of the plant.
BUXBAUMIA APHYLLA. LEAFLESS BUXBAUMIA.
BUXBAUMIA aphylla. Linn. Sp. PI. p. 1570. FI. Suec. p. 463. Timm. Prodr. Fl. Megap. n. 858.
Linn. Diss. in Amcen. Acad. ml. 5. p. 78. cum Ic . Pollich Pal. n. 972. Willd.
Prodr. Fl. Berol. n. 978. Hoffm. Germ. ml. 2. p. 22. Turn. Muse. Hib. Spic.
- p. 104. Wade Pi. Rar. Hib. cum Ic . All. Fl. Ped. n. 2432. Fl. Dan. t. 44.
Ehrh. P hy t. p. 10. Swartz Muse. Suec. p. 74. Engl. Bot. t. 1596. Linn. Ml.
Diss. Meth. Muse. p. 25. Hedw. Fund. Muse. t. 9- J - 52. t. 3 .ƒ . 10. Oed. Dan.
t. 44. Hedw. Sp. Muse. p. 166. Weber Spicil. F l. Goet. p. 130. Villars Delph.
ml. 3. p. 919- Mohr Fl. Crypt. Germ. p. 381. (t. X I . f . 2. perist.) Sturm Deutschl.
Fl. Ic . Baumg. Fl. Lips. n. 1326. Lamarck Diet. ml. 1. p. 523. Lam. Fl. Fr.
ed. 3. ml. 2. p. 513. Lam. Fl. Gall. Syn. p .•106. Wahl. Lapp. p. 350. Roth
Germ. ml. 1. p. 446. ml. 2. p. 342. Jacq. Collect, ml. 3. p. 213. E h rh . Han.
Magaz. an. 1780, p. 235. Leers Herb. n. 887. Gunn. Noro. n. 5 7 1. R e tz Prodr.
Fl. Scand. n. 1188. Brid. Muse. Recent, ml. 4 .p. 147.
BUXBAUMIA caufescens. Schmid. Diss.p. 25. I c . f . 1—25. Schranck Bavar. ml. 2. p. 485.
SACCOPIIORUS aphyllus. Pal. de Beauv. Prodr. d?JEtheog. p. 29-
IIIP PO PO D IUM . Fabric.Primit. p. 31.
MUSCUS capillaceus aphyllus, capitulo crasso bivalvi. B uxb. Cent. 2. p. 8. t. 4 . f . 2. Dill. Muse.
P- 477. t. 6 S ./. 5.
BUXBAUMIA caulescens, aphylla. Hall. Helv. n. 1728.. Gleditsch. Meth. F ung.p. 142.
MUSCUS nanus, tuberosa radice, foliis juniperinis, tenuissime serratis, capitulo magno, ovato, ventri-
coso, calyptra tomentosa. Mich. Nov. Gen. PI. p. 109- n. 13?
Class a n d Order. CRYPTOGAMIA MUSCI.
[N atural Order. MUSCI, Juss. Decandolle. CRYTOGAMÆ CALYPTRATÆ, D iv . A.
OPERCULATÆ, Mohr.]
Gen . Char. Perist. duplex. E x t. filis numerosis, inarticulatisj succulentis. In t. membrana conoidea,
plicata. Calyptra mitræformis. (Capsula obliqua, hinc gibba.)
P lant/E sparsim, rarius gregatim crescunt.
Caulis omnino nullus!
Folia nulla!
PERICH2ETIUM terram in parte immersum, et radices
tomentosas fuscas emittens, ovato-oblongum, bul-
.. biforme, villis nigricantibus, brevibus, strictis va-
rieque intertextis obtectura, intus lteve.
SETAtri- ad quinque-linearis, rigida, crassiuscula, efecta,
paululum tamen flexuosa, cylindrica, rubro-pur-
purea, nitida, tuberculis minutis numerosis exasperate.
Capsula, apophysi oblonga, parva instructa; magna,
ovata, oblique, supra plana, submarginata, basi
producta vel gibba, infra convexaj oris margine
elevato hie illic fisso. Substantia parte supenore
tenera, inferiore membranaceo-camosa. Color
viridis rubedine srepe tinctus, maturitate rufo-
fuscus.
Operculum conico-obtusum, capsulas colore.
Calyptra mitrafformis, conico-subacuminatum, mem-
branaceum, integerrimum.
Peristomium duplex: ext. ciliis numerosis, subrequa-
libus, inarticulatis, subtorulosis, opacis, obscure
l-ufescentibus; int. membranaceum, tenerum, albi-
dum, conum efformans plicatum, striatum.
Semina numerosa, minuta, subsphosrica, pallide luteo-
fusca.
Plants growing scattered about, rarely collected close
together.
Stem scarcely any!
Leaves none!
PERiciiiETiUM partly immersed in the earth, and emitting
brown, fibrous radicles, ovato-oblong, bulbi-
form, covered with short, straight or variously
interwoven blackish hairs, within smooth.
Fruit-stalk from three to five lines long, rigid, thick-
ish, erect, although a little flexuose, cylindrical,
reddish purple, shining, rough, with very numerous
minute tubercles.
Capsule seated upon a small oblong apophysis, large,
ovate, oblique, above flatfish, somewhat margin-,
ed ; at the base produced or gibbous, below convex
; the mouth has an elevated margin which
is here and there cleft. The substance in the upper
part is thin and delicate, the rest between
membranaceous and carnose. The colour is
green, often tinged with red, when ripe red-brown.
Operculum obtusely cone-shaped, of the same colour
as the capsule.
Calyptra mitrafform, conical and subacuminate, membranaceous,
entire.
Peristomiom double: exterior of numerous, nearly
equal, jointless, somewhat torulose, opaque, reddish
cilia; interior membranaceous, delicate,
whitish, forming a plicated and striated cone.
Seeds numerous, minute, somewhat spherical, pale yellow
brown.
Fig. 1. Infant plants of Buxbaumia aphylla. Fig. 2. One of the same magnified. Fig. 3. Individuals more
advanced. Fig. 4. One of the same magnified. Fig. 5. Plants arrived at their foil growth. Fig. 6. One of
the same magnified. Fig. 7. Fully formed capsule longitudinally dissected. Fig. 8. Calyptra. Fig. 9- Operculum.
Fig. 10. Upper half of a ripe capsule with the operculum removed, showing the external peristomium.