Page:The Botany of the Antarctic Voyage.djvu/153

Campbell's Islands.] Hab. Lord Auckland's group and Campbell's Island; on moist rocks at an altitude of 1200 feet in the former locality, descending lower in the latter. Var. 0, Lord Auckland's group, with the former.

Caules sesquiuneiales, esespitosi, fastigiatim ramosi, ramis gracilibus. Folia erecta, subsecunda, striata, siccitate appressa, subrigida, longe lineari-setacea, basi lauceolata, vaginantia, flavo-viridia, inferiora nigrescentia; nervo valido continuo, apicem versus obtusurn denticulatuin paido dilatato ; periclteetialia majora, convoluta. Inforescentia dioica ; Fl. masc. terminalis, geumiiforrais. Seta vix uncialis, pallida, subtorta. Tlieca erecta, ovata, cylindracea, basi rotunda, badia, lsevis, nitida. Peristoma denies breves, fere horizontals, rnadore conniventes, siccitate erecti, pallide ferruginei. Annulus majusculus. Spora inajusculae. Operculum conico-rostratiun, erectiun, theca paido longior. Calyptra tlieca longior, scariosa, fusca, latere fissa.

The singular apex of the leaf distinguishes this species, even in a barren state, from JFei-ssia contecta, or any similar moss.

Plate LIX. Fig. I. — 1 and 2, specimens of the natural size ; 3 and 4, leaves ; 5 and 6, theca? ; 7, peristome ; 8, teeth ; 9, calyptra : — magnified.

15. CEEATODON, Brid,

Perktomium simplex ; dentibus basi liberis, bipartitis, eruribus trabeculisque horizontalibus connexis, superne solutis, flexuosis. Calyptra cuculliformis. Tlieca imequalis, annulata, tandem profuude sulcata, substrumosa. — Ceratodon, Brid. Brgol. Univ., vol. i. p. 480.

1. Ceratodon purjmreus, Brid. ; 1. c. Didyniodon purpureus, Hook, et Tayl. Muse. Brit. p. 113. t. 20. Dicranurn, Iledwig, S<p. Muse, p, 130. t. 36.

Hab. Lord Auckland's group and Campbell's Island; on the ground, abundant.

16. POLYTEICHUM, L.

Perktomium simplex; dentibus 32-64, brevibus, inflexis, cartilagineis, apicibus membrana horizontali (epiphragma) connexis. Tlieca cxanmdata, ore epiphragmate (e columellas apice dilatato) clausa. Calyptra cuculliformis, glabra, v. indusio villoso e pibs intertextis obtecto. Tlieca exannulata. — Psilopdum, Catharinea, Pogonatum et Polytrichiuu, Bridel et auctorum.

We would gladly avail ourselves of Bruch and Schimper's subdivisions of this genus, as proposed in the ' Bryologia Europaea,' did not the antarctic species prove them to be unnatural. Even the European species, do not coincide with the views of those authors, for the Pogonatum naiunn, Br. and S., has the inner membrane of the sporangium surrounding the columella perfectly cylindrical, and thus is at variance with their definition ; and there is nothing essentially different between its structure and that of Atrickum, of the corresponding membrane in which no mention is made. This inner sporuliferous lining of the columella exists in all mosses, as well as in the Atrickum undulatum. Br. and S., and is the portion of the seminal sac, which, being inverted at the base, ascends the axis of the theca surrounding the columella ; it forms the visible columella ; the tissue itself, being often of extreme tenuity, is frequently overlooked and its continuity with the sporular membrane is not always evident. We have attempted to explain this structure at p. 120, under Sphagnum. That the characters derived from the calyptra are not of generic value is proved by that organ being exposed in P. magellanicum and dendroides, which have otherwise all the cha- racters of Pogonatum. The origin of the villous hairs composing the outer calyptra of many species and their original attachment to the vagiuula did uot escape the notice of Ehrhart and Mohr and subsequently of Wahlenberg, although overlooked by Bruch and Schimper, whose analyses of the genera of mosses are unequalled in point of exe-