i * [ 3 9 1 ]
B R Y U M - paluftre.
Marjh Bryum.
C R Y P T O G A M I A Mujcu
Gen. Char. Capf. with a lid. Veil fmooth. Flower-
Jlalk from a terminal tubercle.
S p e c . C h a r . C a p fu le o b liq u e , o b lo n g . S tem b r a n c h e
d a n d fo rk e d . L e a v e s la n c e o la te , p o in te d , w a v e d ,
e n tir e .
S y n . M n iu m p a lu ftre . Linn. Sp. PI. 15 74- Hudf. FI.
An. 4 7 2 . With. Bot. A r r . v . 3. 85. R e tt. Cant.
3 9 8 . Lightf. Scot. 708.
M . m a ju s , ram is lo n g io r ib u s b ifu rc a tis . Rail Syn. 78.
D ill. Mufc. 233. t. 3 1 . ƒ . 3 .
C o m m o n in boggy meadows and the moift parts of heaths,
producing its fructification in May and June.
Its items form thick tufts, and they are matted together by a
denfe brown woollinefs which clothes their lower part; they
are two or three times branched or forked, thickly clothed with
yellowiih-green, lanceolate, pointed, entire, waved leaves, with
a itrong central rib. Male flowers in fmall flat terminal heads,
jurrounded by numerous fpreading leaves. Capfules on a different
plant, oblong or fomewhat pear-ihaped, oblique, inclined
but not pendent, fupported by a long wavy ftalk, which is yellow
above, red below, originating in a pretty large tubercle. Lid
conical.
Dillenius defcribes the male flowers as occafionally naked
rifing upon little flower- {talks above the leaves, fee his Jig. C ;
and he figures (No. 4.) a very Angular branched plant, com-
pofed of fuch naked heads, growing on axillary branches all
the way up the common item. This was Mil. ramofum of
Hudfon’s firft edition. Thefe varieties feem to unite the genera
of Bryum and Mnium, and to prove that even the naked
male flowers are not a perfectly juft criterion of the latter.
We are now merely collecting faCts, which may hereafter help
us, or fome more able hand, to a better diftribution of thefe
obfcure vegetables.