UMIVERSITATIS LATVIENSIS - DSpace

crispa,
Ulota lutea varies considerably, perhaps not less than U.
in the leaf form, the size and the form of the capsule,
and in the height and structure of the peristome. I shall con-
fine myself to the description of the variation in the respective
organs, without naming the various forms. I do this because
the quantity and condition of the material investigated seems
to be insufficient to give
and forms within the species.
types.
a detailed classification of varieties
As to the leaf form there can be traced at least two
The first is found in the Tasmanian and also in the
Australian plant, so far as I know the latter. The leaves of
the Australian type (Fig. 2, a) are rather long with a more elong-
ated base than in the other type. This type
met with in the New Zealand plant, has usually
with a broader, elegantly
which is to be
shorter leaves
outlined obovate base. The leaves
are greatly narrowed at the insertion, rather rapidly
dilated to
the top of the base and suddenly contracted above it. (Fig. 2,
b, c.) In Bell's collections from the South Island there could
be found plants with a very broad, somewhat rounded, base
of the leaf (Fig. 2, d) this leaf form being a subtype of the
New Zealand type. The length of the seta does not vary much.
As to the variation of the size of the capsule, relatively short
capsules were met with in plants
from the South Island of New
Zealand. Some Tasmanian plants show irregularities in the peri-
stome, the endostome being irregular in its basilar part and
in this respect resembling the praeperistome
of some Orthotri-
chum species (Fig. 3, d). In the endostome 8 processes alternating
with the teeth are always present,
ments of processes standing behind the teeth,
but often there can be seen rudi-
some of these
processes being sometimes well developed. On the inner side
of the exostome the transverse bars reach down to the middle
in the New Zealand plant, while in the Tasmanian they
fined to the top of the teeth (Fig. 3, c, d). Although
are con-
there are
differences in the leaf form and in the structure of peristome
between the Australian and New Zealand plants, they are very
slight and I have hesitated in naming
these forms as varieties
or subspecies and have considered them only geographical races.
The var. robusta may seem a luxuriant form only,
but as
the plant has small capsules with a short peristome it may prove
afterwards that it deserves a higher rank than a forma.
U Weymouthii from Falls Track,
(Weymouth, n. 615)
7
Mt. Wellington
bears various author names as "Burchard"
in Weymouth (1893), "C. Müll." in W a t t s & White-
legge (1905) and "Venturi" in Rod way (1914).
sider the plant the Australian race of U lutea.
I con