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 CHARACTERS AND DESCRIPTION m

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��L YELL I A, &c.

��In the tenth volume of the Society's Transactions, I have given a description of Bawsonia} a genus of Mosses having entirely the habit of Polytrichitm, but whose peristomium, instead of consisting of a single row of short teeth connected by a horizontal membrane, is composed of an indefinite number of capillary cilia. These cilia, originating both from the inner surface of the capsule, immediately within the orifice, and from the columella itself, form a loose pencil, of which the hairs are sufficiently distinct to allow of a gradual discharge of the seeds.

The correctness of this account of Dawsonia, especially as to the origin of the peristomium 2, and the nature of the supposed columella 3, has been questioned by some of those authors, who have since adopted the genus.

From a careful re-examination, however, I find no reason to alter in any respect the generic character formerly given ; and to the description of the species I have only to add, that the upper surface of the leaves is furnished with parallel lamellae, like those of Polytrichiim ; and that the inner membrane of the capsule is, in the early stage at least, [fi«i connected by numerous plicae with those elevations of the

1 [Vol. i,p 348.]

2 Bridel Meth. Nov. Muscor. p. '205.

3 De la Pylaie in Journal de Botauique appliq. iii. p. 134.

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