Caules cfespitosi, 2 tin. longi. Folia conferta, subeoncava, nervo crasso continuo vix excurrente instructa, siccitate uon crispata. Seta 3-4 tin. longa, apice arcuata. Theca subobovata. Peristoma externi dentes lutei, trabecular, trabecutis reniotis. Aunulus rnagnus, iusignis, longitudine i peristomii exterioris.
We advance this species with much hesitation and after a very carefid examination. It is most nearly allied to the B. balanoides (Tayl. MSS.), of which it may possibly be a variety, differing from that moss in the rigid and differently shaped leaves, in the large annulus and distant trabecidse of the outer teeth. The capsule is not sufficiently mature to show the nature of the cilia; of the inner peristome.
Plate LX. Tig. II. — 1, a specimen of the natural she ; 2, 3, 4, and 5, leaves ; 6. theca : — magnified.
20. FUNARIA, Sclireb.
Peristomium duplex ; exterius dentes sedecim, obtiqui, apice cohgerentes ; interim cilia totidem membranacea, basi connata, v. membrana plana, in ciliis 16, dcntibus oppositis, fissa. Cahjptra cucullifomiis, ventricosa, basi subtetragona. Theca inrcquatis, piriformis, cernua, saspius annulata.
1. Fuxaria hygrometriea, Hedw. ; caule brevissimo subsiniplici, foliis appressis ovato-lanceolatis integerrimis nervo excurrente, seta arcuata rnadore torta, theca cernua pyriforrni profuude sulcata, operculo planiusculo. F. hygrometriea, Hedw. Sjj. Muse. p. 170, et auctorum.
Hab. Campbell's Island ; frequent on the hills ; not seen in Lord Auckland's group.
The absence of this moss, in the parts of Lord Auckland's group explored by the expedition, is very remarkable, considering its abundance in Campbell's Island, and is doubtless owing to the presence of carbonized matter over the surface of a great part of the latter island. In the Antarctic regions, as in Europe, the Funaria invariably follow fires, and the confervoid filaments of its youngest state constitute the first appearance of vegetation on the burnt soil of the Falkland Islands.
§ PLEUROCARPI.
21. ANCECTANG1UM, Brid.
Stoma nudum. Calyptra cuculliformis. Theca sequalis, exannulata. Seta lateralis. — Hedwigia, Hook. Muse. Fxot.
1. Amcectangiuji Humhohlti, Brid.; caule erecto diviso pinnathn ramoso, ramis deflexis subrecurvis, foliis hnbricatis obovatis concavis enerviis piliferis, theca subglobosa sulcata, operculo basi planiusculo oblique rostrate A. Hiunboldti, Brid. Bryol. Univ. vol. ii. p. 165. Hedwigia, Hook. Muse. Bxot. t. 137. Sehwaeg. Snppl. vol. ii. pt. 1. p. 9. t. 103.
Var. /3, australe ; caule breviore, foliis acutis seta recta breviore terminatis marginibus nou cartilagineis.
Hab. Lord Auckland's group and Campbell's Island; on moist rocks, at an elevation of 1100 feet in the former and 600 in the latter island.
The original specimen, figured in the ' Musei Exotici,' has the leaves terminated by a slender hair-like production of their own length, whilst others, gathered by Dr. Lyall at Rio, are muticous in that respect ; those now before us are intermediate, and some others from Cape Horn more closely resemble the moss of the Andes.
22. LEUCODOjST, Sehwaeg.
Peristomium simplex, membranaceum ; dentibus sedecim, bipartitis. Calyptra cuculliformis.
