Univ. i. 192. Grimmia patens, Bruch & Schimp. Biyol. Eur.
t. 246.
Hab. Between Fort Colville and the Eocky Mountains (Drummond,
Lyall); on rocks, White Mountains (James).
S f b g e n u s II. BRYPTODON.
Plants fastigiately branching; innovations simple. Cells
quadrate or oval above, generally erose, very narrowly linear
and sinuous at the base.
2. R. a c icu la re , Brid. Loosely and irregularly cespitose,
bright or dark green, rigid, naked below : leaves more or less
turned to one side, oblong at base, lanceolate, obtuse, entire, or
the upper marked at the apex by a few small distant hyaline
teeth : capsule oblong-cylindrical, brown, erect; lid long, narrowly
subulate or acicular-beaked; teeth cleft to below the
middle. —Bryol. Univ. i. 219; Bryol. Eur. t. 262. Bryum
aciculare, Linn. Sp. PL 1118. Grimmia acicularis, Muell.
Syn. i. 801.
H ab. Wet rocks, waterfalls in mountains; not rare.
3. R. d ep re ssum , Lesq. Plants yellowish brown, in wide
loosely compressed tufts ; stems very long, scarcely branching:
leaves loosely imbricate, appressed when dry, open and homo-
mallous when moist, broadly ovate, dilated and semi-auricled at
the decurrent base, lanceolate above, obtuse, entire or slightly
distantly denticulate at the apex ; costa flat; cells of the auricles
quadrate or broadly equilateral, more or less granulose, the
basilar linear and continuous, the upper broadly ovate ; capsule
subcylindrical, not narrowed at the orifice, immersed on a short
pedicel scaroelj’ half as long as the lateral fruit-bearing innovations
; teeth rarely bifid, mostly tripartite with unequal free or
cohering smooth segments. ^— Mem. Calif. Acad. i. 14.
H a e . Falls of the Yosemite (Bolander).
The species resembles in size and color B. protensum, var. cataracta-
rum, but differs in the broader and larger leaves inclined to one side,
more obtuse and generally denticulate, as in B. aciculare, the thin base
somewhat enlarged into a narrow auricle, whose reticulation is broad-
quadrate like that of a Dicranum. The wide-mouthed capsule is nearly
exactly cylindrical, sometimes slightly curved; the teeth are more irregularly
divided than in B. protensum, and the articulations more distinct.
4. R. Nevii, Watson. Related to B. aciculare in the color
of the plants and form of the leaves, but differing essentially
in the short pedicel, and the quadrate areolation of the upper
part of the leaves; on the other hand, in the short pedicel of the
narrowly oval or subcylindrical capsule this species resembles
the last, from which it differs in the form of the leaves, the
color of the plants, the more regular division of the teeth of the
peristome, etc. A distinct very fine intermediate form. — Bot.
Calif, ii. 381. Grimmia Nevii, Muell., Regensb. Flora (1873),
Ivi. 483, and Bull. Torr. Club, v. 6.
Hab. Portland, Oregon (B. D. Nevius, 1873).
SuBGENFS III. RACOMITRIUM, proper.
Plants nodose by short numerous lateral fasciculate branches.
Male flowers lateral. Fruit acrogenous or sublateraL Teeth
generally divided into two long filiform segments.
5. R. Sudeticum, Bruch & Schimp. Plants loosely cespitose,
dirty green, slender, naked below: leaves spreading,
divaricate, erect when dry, long-lanceolate, gradually acuminate
to a short pellucid denticulate apex: calyptra nearly smooth at
the apex: capsule on a short pedicel, very small in comparison
to the size of the plants, elliptical or obovate; lid conical-rostrate,
shorter than the capsule ; teeth purple ; annulus large,
revoluble. — Bryol. Eur. t. 264. Trichostomum Sudeticum,
Funck, Stirp. Crypt. B. microcarpon, Hedw. and Brid., and
Grimmia microcarpa, Muell., in part.
Ha b . On exposed rocks; Eocky Mountains (Drummond); Spokan
Falls (Watson); Alleghany Mountains (Sullivant); Fairmount Park,
Philadelphia (James); Stoney Creek, Pennsylvania (B. A. Bau ) ; Catskill
and White Mountains, e tc .; not common.
Easily confounded with B. patens, hut distinguished by its more slender
stems, the upper leaves with diaphanous denticulate points, and the
capsule half as large, on a short straight or slightly inclined pedicel.
6. R. heterostich.um, Brid. Tufts more or less extensive
and irregular, grayish green; plants long, dichotomous, erect or
prostrate ; branches somewhat fasciculate : leaves open or fal-
cate-seound, long-lanceolate, subulate to a pellucid remotely
dentate point, variable in length, more or less plicate : calyptra
papillose at the apex only: capsule elliptical or obovate, thin,
slightly constricted under the orifice when empty, yellowish
brown ; lid erect or curved, subulate, half the length of the capsule
; teeth variable in length ; annulus large, yellow. — Muso.