2865.
HYPNUM brevirostre.
Short-beaked Feather-Moss.
CRYPTO GAMI A Musci.
Gen. Char. Fruitstalks lateral. Peristome double ;
outer, of 16 teeth; inner, a membrane cut into
16 segments with intermediate filiform processes.
Calyptra dimidiate.
Spec. Char. Stem ascending-, irregularly branched,
subpinnate. Leaves widely spreading, cordate-
ovate, concave, suddenly contracted upwards
and acuminated, serrated, two-nerved at the
base; those of the stem striated and squarrose.
Capsule ovate, cernuous. Lid conical, with a
very short blunt beak.
Svn. Hypnum brevirostrum, Ehrh. (not Engl. Bot.
t. 1647, which is H. rutabulum.)
f t brevirostre, Schwaegr. Suppl. I. sect. 2. 279. t.
22b. a. Mougeot and Nestler, no. 423. Hook,
and Tayl. Muse. Brit. ed. 2. p. 182. Grev.
Crypt. Scot. t. 337.
Hypnum triquetrum, j3. minus. Web. and Mohr
Bot. Tasch. 354.
Hypnum umbratum. Sm.Fl. Brit. 1299? (not Engl.
B o t.t.2 b 6 b •)
O UR specimen wasgatherednear Killarney in Nov. 1829,
and it has been seen in Cheshire, Devonshire, Hampshire,
Sussex, Scotland, and Wales, bearing fruit, not very freely
except in mountainous woods, where it covers detached
masses of rock.
This moss was several years agodistinguished byEhrhart,
and published as new in his Plantce Exsiccatce; but was afterwards
confounded by Sir J . E. Smith with Hypnum rutabulum.,
and, through excessive caution rather than ignorance,
was long afterwards retained by Weber and Mohr
and other writers, as a variety of H . triquetrum, from which
it is nevertheless abundantly distinct. Unlike that moss,
which has a very erect stem, this species has a very straggling
habit of growth, so as to be almost procumbent, extending
to the length of six inches and more, and the
branches are often bent downwards and attenuated at the
extremity, where it sometimes also becomes rooted. The