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PHÀSCUM bryoides.
Tall Earth-moss.
CRYPTOGAMIA Musa.
Gen. Char. Capsule ovate, without any separate lid,
deciduous. Veil minute, deciduous.
S pec. Char. Stem simple. Leaves ovate, hair-pointed,
upright. Capsule elliptical, beaked. Fruit-stalk
erect, straight.
Syn. Phascum bryoides. Dicks. Crypt, fasc. 4. 3. t. 10.
f . 3 . Sm . FI. Brit. 1 1 5 4 .
FO R this singular Phascum, whose long stalk gives it so
much the appearance of a Bryum, we are obliged to the Rev.
Dr. Abbot, who found it at Clapham springs, Bedfordshire.
Mr. Dickson mentions "heaths and woods” as its natural
places of growth, without specifying any particular spot. It
is annual, ripening its fruit in the spring.
This is one of the largest species of the genus. The root
consists of numerous fibres. Stem erect, various in length,
simple, leafy. Leaves imbricated, very little spreading, lanceolate
or inclining to ovate, entire, tipped with a bristle, and
keeled with a strong nerve. Stalk terminal, upright and firm,
reddish, exceeding the stem in length. Capsule erect, brown,
smooth, of a broadish elliptical figure, tipped with a lighter-
coloured, tapering, rather inclined, lid, which does not fall off,
but the seeds escape from the capsule by its decaying or being
accidentally torn. Veil tapering, pale.