Rhabdoweisia sinensi-fugax (C. Müll.) Par., Ind. Bryol. Suppl. 291. 1900.

Plants small, 2–3 cm high, green above, reddish brown below, in densely tomentose tufts. Stems erect or ascending, simple or branched; central strand present. Leaves crispate or flexuose when dry, erect-spreading when moist, lanceolate from a broad, sheathing base to a slenderly acuminate apex; margins entire below, serrulate near the apex, recurved nearly throughout to the base, bistratose above; costa percurrent to shortly excurrent, keeled, convex at the back; upper cells quadrate-hexagonal, thick-walled, rather low-mammillose; lower cells elongate and rectangular, thin-walled, smooth; alar cells not differentiated. Autoicous. Perigonia sessile. Perichaetial leaves similar to vegetative leaves. Setae reddish brown, cygneous when moist; capsules ovoid, 8-ribbed when dry; opercula shortly rostrate; annuli developed, in 2 rows; peristome teeth reddish brown, inserted at the mouth, lanceolate, divided halfway down or perforate, clearly obliquely papillose-striate. Calyptrae cucullate, entire at the base. Spores not seen.

Type. China: Shaanxi, Taibai Shan (Mt.), Giraldi 1782 (holotype B, probably destroyed; isotype H).

Chinese specimen examined: Only the isotype is seen.

Habitat: on rocks; Distribution: endemic to China.

Brotherus (1924) suggested that Rhabdoweisia sinensi-fugax be transferred to Cynodontium, but he did not make a formal new combination. C. Gao (1994) confirmed that the species clearly belongs in Cynodontium. The combination was made based on the following features: 1) upper leaf cells short, quadrate, and mammillose; 2) upper leaf margins bistratose; 3) costa with 2 stereid bands in transverse section; 4) capsules deeply ribbed when dry and peristome teeth divided; and 5) the stems triangular.

Illustrations: Pl. 29, figs. 1–12.