[ 1604 ]
BRYÜM crudum.
Transparent-green Thread-moss.
CRYPTOGAMIA Mùsci. I
G e n . C h a r . Outer f r in g e of 16 teeth, broad at the
base : inner a toothed membrane. Flowers terminal.
Capsule ovate-oblong, smooth. Ve il smooth.
S p e c . C h a r . Stem simple. Leaves lanceolate, acute,
entire ; the uppermost narrow and minutely toothed.
Capsule oblong, drooping.
S y n . Bryum crudum. Huds. 491. Sm. FI. B r it. 1361.
Hull. 266. Turn. Muse. Hib. 130.
B. sericeum. Huds. 487, according to Rev. H. Davies.
B. pendulum hornum molle, foliis lanceolatis et gra-
mineis. D ill. Muse. 401. t. 51. f . 70.
Mnium crudum. Linn. Sp. PI. 1576. Hedw. Sp.
Muse. 189. Cryp t, v . 1 . 99. t. 37. W ith . 807.
Ehrh. Cryp t. 152.
CxATHERED by Mr. W. Brunton at Moss Dale Head,
Wensley Dale, in the north of Yorkshire. It bears fruit in
the summer, and is perennial.
We have compared our specimens with original ones of
Dillenius, Hedwig, Ehrhart, and other writers. Much affinity
is observable between this species and B. elongatum, though
there are abundant marks of distinction, particularly in the
inner fringe, which in B. crudum has the usual structure of the
genus. The size of the whole plant is also twice as large;
the leaves are much broader, and thin at the edge, the upper
ones only being lengthened out into a narrow linear shape
and slightly toothed; the capsules are thicker, when ripe
rather oblong than ovate, with much less of that base or apophysis
into which the cavity for the seeds does not extend.
The lid is like B. elongatum. We conceive that these 2 species
ought naturally to be placed near each other, though in the
Flora Britannica, out of deference to the method of Hedwig,
they stand far asupder. The natural distribution of all the
species, as well as genera, of mosses with respect to each
other, can only be perfected by degrees, when mqfe exotic
ones are observed with this particular view.