[ 1991 ]
Z o / ,
CRYPTOGAMS Musci.
Gen. Char. Caps, oblong. Fringe o f 32 capillary,
straightish teeth, approximated or united in pairs.
Spec. Char. Leaves ovato-lanceolate, recurved, keeled
and deeply channelled, with a pellucid finely serrated
point. Capsule ovate. Stem erect, with very
short branches.
Syn. Trichostomum ericoides. Schrad. Spicil. 62.
Sm. FI. Brit. 1241. Turn. Muse. H ib .3 8.
T . elongatum. Ehrh. Crypt. 233.
Bryum ericoides. Dicks. Crypt, fasc . 4. 14.
B. hypnoides. Linn. Sp. PI. 1585, y . Iluds. 480, i.
With. 820, var. 4. Hull. 2 5 9 , var. 4.
B. hypnoides, ericas facie, capsulis barbatis, alpinum.
Dill. Muse. 371. t. 4H.f. 31.
B. hypnoides, capitulis plurimis erectis, non lanugi-
nosum. Dill, in Raii Syn. 4 78.
RlCHARDSON communicated this moss to Dillenius from
the higher part of Snowdon, and few British botanists besides
have ever seen it. Messrs. Borrer and Hooker met with our
specimens last summer on the sandy shores of the Tay near
Dunkeld.
The stems are perennial, 2 or 3 inches high, growing upright
in loose tufts, subdivided, furnished with abundance of
little, short, alternate, spreading or recurved, branches. The
stem and branches are clothed with lanceolate, or ovato-
lanceolate, spreading and recurved leaves, entire at their
edges, each marked with a deep channel and keeled, without
a mid-rib, and terminating in a white, transparent, hairlike,
finely serrated point. Fruitstalks terminating the last-
year’s shoots, erect, an inch or more in length, dark purple,
twisted. Capsule erect, ovate inclining to cylindrical, smooth,
brown. Lid awlshaped, straight. Fringe purple, straight,
nearly as long as the capsule. Veil toothed.
We find the leaves of this species, even in Ehrhart’s specimen,
have no true nerve, and therefore that mark of distinction
fails us with respect to T. canescem.
'Soy FublisKd by JaP Sowerby London