UMIVERSITATIS LATVIENSIS - DSpace

Ulota memßranafa n. sp. *)
Autoicous. Plants in yellowish-green
tufts. Stems ca. 1.5 cm
high. Leaves patulous or very slightly twisted when dry, pa-
tent when moist, lineal-lanceolate, acuminated, gradually dilated
into a concave, obovate base; margins almost plane; nerve
brownish, vanishing shortly below or in the apex. Cells in the
middle of the base yellow, incrassate, not vermicular,
at the
margins of the base 4—6 rows of hyaline cells with thickened
transverse walls, cells in the upper part irregularly-rounded,
small, smooth, ca. 8 \l.
Perichaetial bracts with a longer base
and more obtuse than the leaves. Vaginula with a few para-
physes; ochrea distinct. Seta yellowish, thick, ca. 4 mm high.
Capsule, almost pyriform, narrowed at the mouth, distinctly rib-
bed, little altered when old, stomata in the lower part
of the
theca. Lid of one colour with a rather long beak. Calyptra
straw-coloured, hairy.
Peristome double with a praeperistome
formed by a somewhat irregular, slightly striated membrane some-
times reaching as high as the middle of the teeth ; outer peri-
stome of 8 bigeminate teeth afterwards splitting, teeth yellow,
papillose with distinct transverse bars; processes 16, very broad,
irregular. Spores yellowish-green, smooth, very large, up to
80 jx, sometimes multicellular. Fig.
8 and 9.
Distribution: Tasmania and New Zealand.
Specimens examined.
Tasmania: West Coast, Comet-Dundas Road, on wood, 17. X 1893
(Weymouth, n. 1652) in Herb. Broth., determ. by Venturi as U. viridis
Vent.
New Zealand: North Island, Mauriceville, Wairarapa (Gray) Herb.
Dixon ; South Island, Bealey, 1874 (Berggren)
Herb. Dixon.
There is nothing in the habit of the plant that might sug-
gest the curious characters of the sporophyte: the praeperi-
stome—anew character in the genus, and the sometimes multi-
cellular spores
18
— a new character in the family. The praeperi-
stome is much higher in the Tasmanian plant than in the New
Zealand one and in the former at least some spores were
multicellular, while I was not able to detect a division in the
spores of the New Zealand specimens. The multicellular spores
are neither mothercells of spores, as could perhaps be suggested,
nor can they be considered as merely germinated spores,
because they were also found in capsules
before the fall of the
') Folia sicca patentia, c basi obovata lineari-lanceolata, cellulis basalibus
externis in seriebus pluribus (4—6) hyalinis, superioribus rotundatis incrassatis
laevibus. Theca late oblonga vel subpiriformis sicca vacua parum mutata, ore
coarcato, praeperistomio membranaceo instructa, stomatibus ad basin thecae po-
sitis. Exostomii dentes 8 bigeminati, endostomii processus 16 latissimi irregu-
läres. Spori magni 60—80 ji. partim multicellulars.