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DICRANUM flavescens.
Yellowish Fork-moss.
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CRYPTOGAMIA Musci.
G e n . C h a r . Caps, o b lo n g . F r in g e o f 16 flat, clovea
teeth, a little inflexed.
S p e c . C h a r . Stein erect, somewhat branched. Leaves
linear-lanceolate, wavy when dry. Capsule turbinate,
erect, smooth?
S vn . Dicranum flavescens. Sm . F I . B r i t . 1224. Turn,
JMusc. H ib . 70.
Bryum fla v e s c en s . D ic k s . Cryp t, fa s c . 2. 4. t. 4./ . 5.
W ith . 830. H u l l . 254.
F o u n d in alpine marshy places in Scotland, according to
Mr. Dickson, who favoured ns with a specimen. Mr. Turner
mentions its growing on rocks wet with running water in Ireland.
W e find no mention of this species among foreign
writers, for the B. flavescens of Scopoli, FI. Corn. n. 1305.
t. 62, most assuredly different, appears to be our Tortula tor-
tuosa, t. 1708.
The stems are perennial, two or three inches tall, simple or
branched, leafy, smooth, except about the bottom, where
they are a little downy with rusty fibres. Leaves linear-lanceolate,
acute, keeled, single-ribbed, spreading, entire, except
a few occasional teeth near the tip ; dilated at the base; yellowish
when young; blackish when very old. Fruitstalks
towards the tops of the stems, few, about half an inch high,
firm, pellucid, reddish, Capsule quite erect, top-shaped,
not so long as in Mr. Dickson’s plate, its surface very smooth
and even. The lid has not been observed. The remaining
bases of the teeth in Mr. Dickson’s specimen are sufficient to
indicate the genus, and we have more, gathered by Mr. Menzies
at Prince William’s Sound, on the west coast of North America,
which confirm it.