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BRYUM nutans.
Silky Pendulous Thread-moss.
CRYPTOGAMIA Musci.
G e n . C h a r . Caps, o v a to -o b lo n g , sm o o th . Fringe
d o u b le : outer o f 16 te e th , b ro a d a t th e ir b a se : inner
a to o th e d m em b ran e . Flowers te rm in a l.
S p e c . C h a r . S tem m o stly simple. L e av e s la n c eo la te ,
a c u te , k e e led . C a p su le o b o v a te , p e n d u lo u s , o b tu se .
S y n . Bryum nutans. Schreb. Lips. 81. Swartz. Muse.
Suec. 46. Roth. Germ. v. 3. 252.
B . se ric eum . With. 839. Hull. 265. Sibth. 292.
B . tric h o d e s læ te v iren s, cap itu lis c e rn u is ob lo n g is.
Dill. Muse. 391. t. 50. f . 61.- Rail Syn. 100.
Webera nutans. Hedw. Sp. Muse. 168. Crypt, v. 1 . 9.
t. 4.
FO U N D on mountainous heaths, ripening its fruit in July
and-August. Dillenius gathered it near Woolwich; the Rev.
Dr. Abbot in Apsley wood, Bedfordshire; and Mr. Turner
near Dublin. We have seen it about rocks on Cromford
moor, near Matlock.
The stems grow erect in dense tufts, and are for the most
part simple and short, most leafy at their summits. The
leaves are of a light shining yellowish green, lanceolate, acute,
tipped with a serrated point, and furnished with one rib.
Fruit-stalk terminal, solitary, very long, frequently even 3
inches, of a polished red or tawny purple, paler upwards.
Capsule pendulous, obovate, obtuse, or as it were truncate,
of a rusty hue, opaque, tapering very little at the base. Lid
convex, with a short blunt point. Outer fringe yellowish;
inner variously laciniated.
The great Hedwig found the stamina in the same flower
with the pistillum, and on that account separated his genus
of Webera from Bryum. We think with Dr. Swartz that
such a circumstance does not in mosses form a natural genus.
According to the Rev. H. Davies the B. sericeum of Hudson
is only B. crudum. The herbarium of Dillenius shows
that he confounded this plant with Pohlia elongata of Hedwig,