HYPNUM piliferum.
Hair-pointed Feather-moss.
CRYPTOGAMlA Musci.
Gen. Char. Fringe double: outer of 16 tapering
teeth: inner a toothed membrane. Flowers lateral.
Fruit-stalk from a scaly sheath.
Spec. Char. Branches scattered. Leaves ovate, concave,
entire, with a single rib reaching half way
from the base, and tipped with a hair. Lid awl-
shaped.
Syn. Hypnum piliferum. Schreb. Lips. 91. Sm. Fl.
Brit. 1319. Hedw. Sp. Muse. 275. Crypt, v. 4. 35.
t. 14. Turn. Muse. Hib. 178.
S eNT by our obliging friend Mr. Winch from Northumberland
in July last. We have it also from the Rev. H. Davies,
and it has been found in Ireland by Dr. Scott. It is said to
grow in moist shady situations.
The stems vary from 2 to 6 or 8 inches in length, being
procumbent, very irregularly branched, their branches spreading,
unequal in length, cylindrical and rather acute. Leaves
loosely imbricated on every side, of a pale shining green,
ovate, obtuse, concave, entire, smooth, hair-pointed, furnished
with a rib from their base which commonly vanishes
about the middle. Fruit-stalks an inch or more in length, red,
wiry. Sheath of several pale, loosely spreading, hair-pointed
scales. Capsule drooping, ovate, swelling and short when
ripe. Fringe red. Lid scarcely so long as the capsule, slender,
with a conical base.