2871.
HYPNUM polyanthos.
Many-fruited Feather Moss.
CRYPTOGAMIA Musci.
Ge n . Char. Fruit-stalks lateral. Peristome double;
outer one of 16 teeth; inner, a membrane cut
into 16 equal segments, and usually with intermediate
filiform processes. Calyptra dimidiate.
Spec. Char. Stems creeping, tufted, irregularly
branched. Branches short, simple, and slightly
curved. Leaves subsecund, imbricated, lanceolate,
acuminate, nerveless, entire. Capsule erect,
ovate-oblong. Lid conical, acuminated.
Sy n . Hypnum polyanthos. Hook, and Tayl. Muse.
Brit. ed. 2. 164. suppl. t. 5. (not Engl. Bot.
t. 1664.) Leskea polyantha. Hedw. Mus. Frond.
v.A. p. 4. t. 2. Ejusd. Sp. Muse. 229. Schwaegr.
Suppl. v. 1. pt. 2. 178. Grev. Scot. Crypt, v. 3.
t. 151.
O u r specimens were found upon trees, near Beaumaris,
in July 1830. This moss is of rare occurrence in Britain,
though it may perhaps have been sometimes overlooked,
from its very close resemblance to the moss erroneously
figured instead of it at t. 1664 of this work, which is
now distinguished from H. cupressiforme by Dr. Taylor,
under the name of H. multtflorum, in FI. Hib. Part 2.
p. 46. The subject of our present description affords an
example of the doubtful expediency of blending the genus
Leskea with Hypnum, inasmuch as it is the structure of
the peristome which almost singly constitutes the distinctive
mark, not only between this moss and H. multtflorum, but
also between it and Pterogonium intricatum of Hedwig.