ovate-acuminate, the comal oblong-ovate, lanceolate, cuspidate
by the excurrent costa, bordered by a brown margin, reflexed
from the base to the middle, plane, and obscurely serrate at the
apex, soft, dirty green: male flower close to the female: capsule
horizontal or inclined on a long pedicel curving near the apex,
long-necked, pyriform, more or less incurved, microstome, yellowish
brown, darker when old; lid oblique, small, convex and
mamillate, orange; segments split; cilia rudimentary or none;
annulus broad : spores minute, verruculose. — Bryol. Eur. t. 339.
Hab. On decayed trunks, in wet places; plains and mountains, from
th e Atlantic to the Pacific; rare.
A variety with liermaphrodite flowers has been found near Twin Lakes,
Colorado, by Wol f & Bothrock.
S u bg en u s II. BRYUM, proper.
Capsule inclined or pendent, ovate and oblong-pyriform,
rarely slightly incurved. Inner peristome free ; membrane
large ; segments long, perfect, separated by 2 to 4 cilia appendiculate
at the articulations.
* Flowers bisexual, rarely polygamous.
12. B. interm ed ium , Brid. Plants widely cespitose, green,
closely matted with radicles ; stems short, dividing into short
innovations: upper leaves oblong-ovate, lanceolate, the lower
shorter; costa stout, reddish, excurrent into a long remotely
denticulate point ; borders very entire, reflexed or revolnte :
capsule horizontal or inclined or pendent, oblong or pyriform,
its collum as long as the sporangium, slightly incurved, scarcely
narrowed under the orifice when dry ; lid convex-conical, apiculate,
persistent; cilia 2 or 3; annulus separating in fragments.
— Muse. Recent. Suppl. iv. 120; Bryol. Eur. t. 356. Webera
intermedia, Schwaegr. Suppl. i. 267, t. 75.
H a b . Crevices of rocks and walls, exposed to the south; not rare.
13. B. c irrh a tum , Hoppe & Hornsch. Plants cespitose,
short and robust, with slender and long branches ; inner tomentum
dark brown : inner leaves ovate-lanceolate, the comal close,
numerous, long-lanceolate, acuminate, those of the branches
ovate-acuminate, all broadly margined and revolute on the
borders ; costa stout, fuscous, excurrent into a long distantly
denticulate or smooth point: capsule pendent, obovate or ol>
conical-pyriform, regular, constricted under the orifice when
dry ; lid large, convex, apiculate ; segments split ; cilia long, 2
or 3 ; annulus large, revoluble, punctulate. — Regensb. Flora, ii.
90 ; Bryol. Eur. t. 357.
H a b . Swampy ground, in mountains; Big Tree Grove, and on Mono
Pass, California (Bolander, Ames); Colorado (Bothrock & Wolf).
14. B. bimum, Schreb. Plants loosely cespitose, matted
together hy a felt of reddish radicles : leaves half-olasping,
decurrent, open, the outer comal ones elliptical, short-acuminate,
the upper or medial oblong-lanceolate, cuspidate by the exour-
rent fuscous or purple costa, bordered by a broad revolute
margin, slightly serrate at the apex, loosely imbricate and
twisted when dry : capsule pendent, obovate or oblong-pyriform,
slightly constricted under the orifice when dry, chestnut-colored
or dark brown; lid broad, convex-mamillate ; inner peristome
as in the last species : spores green, minute, punctulate. —
Spicil. FL Lips. 83 ; Bryol. Eur. t. 363.
H a b . Swamps, decayed trunks, roots of trees near water, etc. ; very
common on the Eastern slope; Nevada (Watson); Washington Territory
(Lyall).
Eesembling the last species in the form and consistence of the capsule,
it differs especially In the longer-acuminate and long-cuspidate leaves, and
in the spores one-third larger. From B. pseudotriquetrum, with which
it has been confounded by some authors, it differs in its bisexual inflorescence,
the slender stems generally shorter, the leaves less solid and cuspidate,
tlie capsule shorter, and lid not as highly convex. Schimper remarks
that B. cirrhatum, B. bimum, and B. cuspidatum are separated by characters
of so little importance that they should perhaps be united into one
species.
15. B. lon ch o cau lon , Muell. Synoecious: stems long,
slender, flexuous, nearly simple, yellowish green, radiculose:
lower leaves distant, the upper close, appressed to the julaceous
stem, narrowly decurrent at base, ovate-lanceolate, concave;
borders revolute to the apex, slightly denticulate at the apex
only, not margined ; costa stout, reddish below, excurrent into
a long slender scarcely denticulate awn ; cells of the areolation
small, pellucid, empty, irregularly rhomhoidal, looser and often
reddish toward the base ; perichætial leaves similar : capsule on
a long purple pedicel, oval, small ; cilia two, strongly appendiculate;
lid not seen. — Regensb. Flora (1875), Iviii. 93.
H a b . Colorado.
Resembles slender forms of B. bimum, but is distinguishable at once
by the immarginate leaves.