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PHASCUM patens. •
Spreading Earth-moss.
toy.
CRYPTOGAMIA Musci.
Gen. Char. Capsule ovate, without any separate lid,
deciduous. Veil minute, deciduous.
Spec. Char. Stem short. Capsule globular. Leaves
lanceolate, spreading, serrated towards the top.
Syn. Phascum patens. Hechv. Sp. Muse. 20. Crypt,
v. 1. 2 8 . t. 1 0 . Sm. FI. Brit. 1 1 5 0 . Roth.
Germ.v. 3. 1 1 2 . Dicks. Crypt, fasc. 4 . 2 .
jS. P . r e c u r v i f o l i u m . Dicks\. Crypt, fasc . 4 . 1. t. 1 0 .
/ • 2 . _ _ _ _ _
SPECIMENS of this little moss have been sent us by Mr.
Templeton from Ireland. They were found in August 1800,
in a dry drain. It has already been observed in England, on a
clay soil in shady places.
The plants grow together in great numbers, but not closely
crowded, forming a beautifully verdant fairy turf. Root annual.
Stem erect, very short, red, most leafy at the top.
Leaves very much spreading, and more or less recurved, various
in breadth, lanceolate, acute, beardless, of a light shining
green, furnished with a single rib, serrated, especially towards
the extremity. Fruit-stalk terminal, short, straight, sheathed
at the base. Capsule erect, globular, brown, with a pale tip.
Veil brown, sharp-pointed.
The variety /3, according to Mr. Turner, differs merely in
having more recurved leaves, which are broadest in their upper
part and contracted from thence to the base.