Page:The Journal of Indian Botany.djvu/618

178 THE JOURNAL OF INDIAN BOTANY. of the border, and I think its proper place is as a var. of F. Walker i t in spite of the objection that it is thus necessarily placed in the § Semilirnbidium, characterized by the presence of a border on the vaginant lamina. The objection is a practical, not a scientific one, how- ever ; for there is no doubt that the presence of a weak border, or the entire absence of a border on the vaginant lamina, may at times be a character of scarcely any taxonomie value. One example, a Fissidens sent me recently from Fiji by Mr. W. Greenwood, manifested no trace whatever of border, and I determined it as a new species of Crenularia. Subsequently further specimens of what was obviously the same moss showed traces of a faint border to the vag. lamina here and there ; and later, fertile specimens showed a distinct border, (while leaves on the sterile stems of the same gathering often showed none at all) ; and the plant was recognizable as an'already described species of Semilirnbidium. In this connection it may be noticed that F. Zippelianus Bry. jav. (a Javan species with a somewhat wide distribution both East and West) while normally without border and placed by G. Mueller and Brotherus in Crispidium, is figured in the Bry. jav. showing a border on the vag. lamina ; which appears to bring it into very close relationship with F. Walkeri.

Fissidens subfirmus Dixon sp. nov. (fig. 3).

Sordide viridis ; caespites densos instruens. Gaules circa 1 cm, alti, vel paullo ultra, saepe ramulosi ; folia confertissima, subaequalia, frondem regularem densam circa 2 mm. latam instruentia, sicca eniter deplanata hand crispata, circa 1 mm. longa, oblongo-lingul- ata, acuta nee acuminata, aliquando tantum sabacuta, superne cellulis marginalibus prominentibus minute denticulata. Lamina vaginans circa h longitudinis folii, limbo superne angustissimo infra latiusculo plusminusve distincte circumdata ; lamina dorsalis ad folii insertionem producta, ibique rotundata ; costa sat valida, tricta, bene definita, flava, percurrens. Cellulae majusculae, 8-13 /* latae, hexagonae, parieti- bus fir?7iis, crassiusculis, sub pell ucidae. Theca in pedunculo perbrevi (2-3mm.) crassiusculo, indistincte ruguloso, subcurvato, erecta vel. leniter inclinata, symmetrica, ovalis, subpachydermata, parva, sicca subore vix coustricta. Operculum haud visum.

Hab. Anmod (3266), (5375).

A marked species with rather large, pellucid cells, and vag, lamina distinctly bordered (the border is most distinct in the per- ichaetial leaves and upper stem leaves, and may be almost or quite wanting in the lower leaves) ; in the short subrugulose seta, and minute rather thick-walled capsule.

F. subobscurus Par. (F. obscurus Mitt, in Journ. Linn. Soc, Bot. Vol. III. Suppl. p. 139, nee F. obscurus Mitt. op. cit. p. 138) is