T O R T U L A ruralis.
Great Hairy Screw-mosS.
• CRYPTOGAMIA Musci.
Gen. Char.^ F r in g e simple, o f numerous capillary
teeth, spirally and repeatedly twisted together.
Spec. Char. Stem branched. Leaves obtuse, recurved,
hair-pointed; the uppermost stellated. Capsule
cylindrical, somewhat ovate.
Sy n . Tor tula ruralis. E h rh . Crypt. 184. Sm. F l.
B r i t . 1254. Sibth. 285. T u rn . Muse. B ib . 50.
Barbula ruralis. Hedw. Sp. M u s e . 121.
Bryum rurale. L in n . Sp. P I . 1581. B u d s . 476.
W i th . 836. B u l l . 265. Relh. 426. A b b o t . 241.
D ick s . B . S ic c .fa s c . 15. 18.
B. rurale unguiculatum hirsutum, elatius et ramosius.
D i l l . Muse. 352. t. 45. f . 12 .
B. majus, erectis falcatis capitulis, foliis latiusculis
extantibus, in pilum canescentem desinentibus. R ail
Syn. 94.
n
COMMON upon walls and the old trunks of trees, but
especially on the roofs of cottages or barns in the country,
which it generally overspreads in broad thick cushion-like
patches, of a dirty brown, somewhat hoary, aspect in dry
hot weather; dark green in the winter and spring ; when the
capsules and their red stalks are copiously produced.
The stems are an inch or two high, branched, elastic, level-
topped, leafy. Leaves of a dull green, oblong, very obtuse,
so as to be almost obovate, entire, recurved, having a central
red nerve, which ends in a long, tawny, roughish, wavy hair.
Fruitstalks at first terminal, but soon becoming lateral, firm,
erect, an inch and half long. Capsule slender, erect, smooth,
chesnut-coloured. Lid scarcely shorter than the capsule,
curved, red. Fringe tawny, shorter than the lid, closely
twisted, the teeth at the base pale, and united into a firm perforated
tube, from which last character some late botanists
have .made a new genus of this and a few other Tortulce. The
veil is. long, awlshaped, brown, a little dilated at the lower
part.