L/Oj
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PTEROGONIUM filiforme.
Capillary Wing-moss.
CRYPTOGAMIA Musti.
G en. Char. Caps, oblong, from a lateral scaly sheath.
Fringe simple, o f 16 linear upright teeth. Veil g e nerally
hairy.
Spec; Char. Stem decumbent, weak, irregularly
branched, creeping. Leaves ovate, serrated,
closely imbricated; Capsules ovate-oblong, erect.
Syn. Pterigynandrum filiforme. Iledw. Sp. Muse. 81.
Crypt, fasc. 4. 18. t. 7.
Hypnum filiforme. Timm. Megapolit. 225.
DISCOVERED in Scotland, on Ben Lawers, by Mr. G.
Don, and in Ireland by Mr. I. T. Mackay, since the 3d vol.
of El. Brit, was published. It grows in dense, prostrate, entangled
patches on rocks or stones, generally in the shade.
The stems are long, creeping, leafy, very slender, irregularly
divided into numerous, similar, or more slender, lax branches.
Leaves scarcely shining, very small, closely imbricated in
about four rows, sometimes a little turned to one side. Their
form is ovate, acute, concave, serrated in their upper half,
without rib or furrows. Male flowers we have not seen; fled-
wig says they grow on a separate plant from the females. The
capsules we have seen only on a specimen communicated by
Professor Swartz. Their sheaths are pale, the scales with long
taper serrated points. T he. fruitstalk is above half an inch
long, slender, tawny. Capsule somewhat ovate, erect, smooth,
shorter and thicker than that of P t. gracile, t. 1085. Lid
conical, with a slightly elongated, blunt, inclined point. We
have not met with the veil.—The largest specimen in our plate
came from Ireland, and has several female flowers, not yet
come to fruit. Mr. J. D. Sowerby detected the serratures of
the leaves, which escaped Hedwig.