Fissidens similiretis

Fissidens similiretis Sull. Proc. Am. Acad
5:274. 1861.
Fissidens firmiusculus Besch. Rev. Bryol. 18: 50. 1891. (Isotype seen.) Fissidens Helleri Ren. & Card. Bull. Soc. Hot. Belg. 41^: 49. 1905.
Plants up to 1-2 cm. high, dark green, often muddy and old and worn; stems simple or branching by lateral apical innovations, usually about 5-10 mm. long, stout, more or less flexuous; leaves crowded, overlapping, recurved above the middle when dry, 10-20 or even 30 pairs, about 2-2.5 X 0.25 mm., lanceolate, acuminate, the margins not bordered, crenulateserrulate, more sharply serrate at the apex, the costa ending just below the apex, bent at the end of the vaginant laminae and more or less flexuous, clear, occasionally forking or branching at the apex; cells of apical lamina roimded or hexagonal, 5-10 /i in diameter, mamillose on both sides except on border; vaginant laminae two-thirds the length of the leaf, three times as wide as the dorsal lamina, sometimes unequal, the cells somewhat irregtdar, largest toward the costa, 13-18 ju in diameter; dorsal lamina ending abruptly at or above the base; perichaetial leaves often shorter and narrower; dioicous or autoicous; antheridia terminal, few, without paraphyses, with 2 small constricted bracts; vaginule large; seta stout, 3-4 mm. long, geniculate; capsule ovoid or cyliadric, 5 mm. long, the walls coUenchymatous, its ceUs about 27 ju in diameter; calyptra covering only the beak; operculum rostrate; peristome red, strongly incurved, the teeth striate below, the apex spirally thickened; spores brown, up to 18 ju in diameter, maturing in summer.
Type i^ocaIvITy: "On cliffs among mountains" of Cuba (isotype seen).
Distribution: The Bahama Islands; Banao Hills, Cuba; Bayam6n, Puerto Rico {Heller 4933) to Guadeloupe.
Plates./. 121-126.