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D I C R A N U M bipartitum.
Twin-stalked Fork-moss.
CRYPTOGAMIA Musci.
Gen. Char. Caps, oblong. Fringe o f 16 flat, cloven
teeth, a little inflexed.
Spec. Char. Stem somewhat forked. Leaves ovate,
revolute. Fruitstalks often in pairs. Capsule
elliptical, striated, inclining. Lid conical.
Syn. Dicranum bipartitum. Roth Germ. v. 3. 158.
Sm. FI. Brit. 1218.
Bryum bipartitum. Dicks. Crypt, fasc. 2. 7.
With. 835. Hull. 265.
B. parvum, surculis et setis geminatis. Dill.
Muse. 385. t. 49. f . 50.
B. parvum trichoides ramosum, erectis eapitulis
subfuscis, in pediculis obscure rubris. Dill, in
Raii Syn. 96.
D lL L E N IU S observed this species on banks, walls, and in
gardens, bearing fruit in the early spring. He, and Mr.
Dickson who favoured us with specimens, are the only botanists
whom we can find to have gathered this moss in Britain.
Hoffmann and Roth enumerate it amongst the productions of
Germany. It may very possibly have been, by many persons,
overlooked for the common D . purpureum, from which it
differs in being smaller, with broader, shorter, ovate, revolute
leaves, less incurved by drying. The fruitstalks too are paler,
often, but not invariably, standing two together, but scarcely,
we believe, from the same sheath. An essential difference
moreover may be detected in the capsule, which, though
striated, is not, at any period of growth, deeply furrowed,
nor is it quadrangular at the base. The fringe is pale, much
damaged in our specimens.