G R IM M I A Scliisti,
Slate Grimmia.
CRYPT0GAM1A Musci.
G en. Char. F r in g e s i m p l e , o f 16 teeth, broadest at
t h e i r b a s e . Flowers t e r m i n a l . F e il c y l i n d r i c a l .
Spec. Char. L e a v e s a w l s h a p e d , k e e l e d , i n c u r v e d w h e n
d r y . C a p s u l e b e l l - s h a p e d , f u r r o w e d , g l a n d u l a r a t
t h e b a s e . L i d c o n i c a l .
Syn. G r i m m i a S c h i s t i . Sm . FI. B r i t . 1185.
Bryum S c h i s t i . R e tz . P ro d . 261.
B. F I. D a n . t. 538.ƒ . 2.
E believe Mr. George Don, who favoured us with this
moss, is the only person who has found it in Britain. He
has observed it growing on stones by rivulets, in the shade,
on Loch na gore and Clova mountains in Angus-shire, in
July; and on a rock, whose top is always covered with snow,
near Loch Arden, among the Cairn Gorm mountains of Inverness
shire, in the middle of April 1803.
The roots seem to be perennial rather than atanual. The
plants form dense velvet-like tufts of a bright green, owing
to the long slender silky leaves, which, from a broad base,
are awlshaped, keeled, concave and entire, much incurved
when dry. Fruitstalk erect, not quite straight, scarcely half
an inch high; pellucid, yellow and shining when young;
afterwards browner. Capsule bell-shaped, strongly but somewhat
irregularly furrowed longitudinally, brown ; furnished
with a glandular swelling at the top of the stalk on one side,
which is scarcely visible but in a young state. Lid conical,
short, oblique, pale orange-coloured. Fringe short, reddish.
In the Flora Danica the veil is represented as black.