UMIVERSITATIS LATVIENSIS - DSpace

number of species known from each of the countries. Owing to
the collections of W. A. Weymouth made during the
course of many years in Tasmania, some parts
of this island
must be looked upon as well investigated in respect to our
genus. They show an abundance of forms which is rarely to
be met in Ulota on areas of equal size in other countries,
and it
was striking enough to find a good number of peculiar species
in specimens gathered in the same locality. Quite the opposite
must be said about Australia, from which country I had but
litlle material. It is probable that some of the species hitherto
known from Tasmania will be found in South Australia too. In
some species,
as U lutea and U. viridis, distributed in Tasmania
and New Zealand, there could be found slight differences
between the Tasmanian and the New Zealand plant.
All species hitherto known from the region
are confined
to it. Among them U lutea shows affinity to U. fulva Brid. —
a species of the Madagascar region, and U. viridis has species
closely allied to it in different parts
of the world as is shown
further on. U membranata holds a peculiar place
genus,
the praeperistome and the large
in the
sometimes multicellular
spores being new characters for the genus. This species,
bearing a praeperistome,
and U cochleata, with the sto-
mata placed in the middle and the upper part of the
capsule, make the delimitation of Ulota and Orthotri-
chum still more difficult. In reality the separation of these
two as distinct genera is based more on practical considerations
than on differences in characters,
and therefore it seems that
biota can claim no higher rank than that of a subgenus of
Orthotrichum. In consequence of this it would have been better
to revise both genera at the same time, and in reality
it has
proved a drawback that for technical reasons it could not be
done. It is very possible that one or the other of the Ulotas
afterwards may be found hidden among the lesser known Ortho-
trichum-species, and that some species will have to change
their names.
As to the material investigated, that from the Herbarium
of Prof. V. F. Brotherus (now in the possession
tanical Institute of the University in Helsinki)
of the Bo-
has been of the
greatest value. It included W. A. Weymouth's collections
made in Tasmania and W. Be 1 Ys in New Zealand, a great number
of the specimens bearing only preliminary determinations. From
what the late Prof. V. F. Brotherus wrote in forward-
ing the material to me,
3
I concluded that he himself was well
aware of the variety of forms which the material contained. A
fact of special interest was that in Weymouth's collection there
1*