DICRANUM osmundioides.
Close-leaved Fern Fork-moss.
CRYPTOGAMIA Musci.
Gen. Char. Caps, oblong. Fringe of 16 flat, cloven
teeth, a little inflexed.
Spec. Char. Stem erect. Leaves imbricated in two
ranks,sheathing, elliptic-lanceolate,flattened laterally.
Fruitstalk terminal.
Sy n . Dicranum osmundioides. Swartz. Act. Holm,
ann. 1^95. 240» Sm, FL Brit. 1233. Turn.
Muse. Hib. 5 5 .
Fissidens osmundioides. Hedw. Sp. Muse. 153. t. 40.
f n — f l j
Hypnum asplenioides. Dicks. Crypt.fasc. 2 . 10 . t. 5.
f 5 . H. Sicc.fasc'. 1 . 2 1 . With. 843. Hull. 268.
But not o f Swartz.
H. bryoides. Ehrh. Crypt. 124.
How different this is from the real Dicranum Iryoides,
Hypnum Iryoides of Linnaeus, may be seen by a reference to
our 9th vol. t. 625.
D. osmundioides was sent by Mr. Templeton from various
moist places on the mountains of Down and Wicklow counties
in Ireland. Mr. R. Brown observed it in the county of Derry;
Mr. Dickson in Scotland, and Mr. Turner at Nant Francon
in Carnarvonshire. It produces fruit in the spring, and is
perennial.
The stems grow in tufts, upright, an inch or two high,
leafy, and are either simple, or branched in a somewhat proliferous
manner. Leaves dull brownish green, numerous,
closely imbricated in 2 ranks, vertical, compressed, elliptic-
lanceolate, single-ribbed, bluntish, rarely pointed, clasping
the stem at their base; the lower ones smallest. Fruitstalk
terminal, mostly (but not always) solitary, half an inch long,
wavy, dark red. Capsule nearly upright, obovate, dark reddish
brown, smooth, wide-mouthed. Lid, which we have
seen only in Ehrhart’s specimens, as long as the capsule,
awlshaped, straight.
Mr. Turner esteems this plant to be Dillenius’s tab. 3 4 ./. 4,
on which alone depends the Hypnum acacioides of Linnseus;
but if so, the figure is very bad.