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D IC R A N U M viridulum.
Smallest Fern Fork-moss.
CR YPTOGAMIA Musa.
Gen. Char. Caps, oblong. Fringe of 16 flat, cloven
teeth, a little inflexed.
Spec. Char. Stem ascending. Leaves imperfectly
two-ranked, imbricated, elliptic-lanceolate. Fruit-
stalk terminal. Lid swelled at the base.
Syn. Dicranum viridulum. Sm. FI. B rit. 1230.
Fissidens exilis. Hedw. Sp. Muse. 152. t. 38. ƒ 7— 10.
Bryum viridulum. Linn. Sp. PL 1584. Dicks. Crypt,
fa s c . 1. 3. t. \ . f . 5. and fa s c . 4 . 8.
B. paucifolium. JVith. 814. Hull. 257.
As the preceding moss was unknown to Linnaeus, so was
this (the more rare of the two) to Dillenius. It grows on a
clay soil, in shady situations, bearing fruit in the winter or
spring, and is generally presumed to be annual. Mr. W.
Borrer found it at Hurst-perepoint in Sussex.
This is one of the smallest of mosses, the Phased excepted,
and so remarkable for the fewness of its leaves, that Withering’s
name paucifolium would be excellent, if wanted. He
confounds its synonyms however with the preceding, and we
are obliged to say his remarks, and those of Hedwig himself,
respecting this species, are altogether erroneous and unwarrantable.
Mr. Dickson only is right. The specimens in the
Linnean Herbarium have all the marks which stamp them as
original and authentic. They alone answer to all that Linnaeus
has said about his B. viridulum, and their leaves are imbricated;
as well as undulated, or crisped, by drying.
Root small and downy. Stem simple, very short, mostly
oblique. Leaves few, imbricated, obscurely two-ranked,
elliptic-lanceolate, entire, single-ribbed: the uppermost largest,
and generally curved. Stalk terminal, slender, reddish.
Capsule erect, ovate, contracted below the mouth. Lid very
acute, most remarkably tumid at the base.