y / s [ 2371 ]
B R Y U M interruption.
Interrupted Thread-moss.
CRYPTOGAMIA Musci.
GrEN. Char. Outer fringe of 16 teeth, broadest at the
base ; inner a toothed membrane. • Flowers terminal.
Capsule ovate-oblong, smooth. Veil smooth.
S p e c . C h a r . Stem branched, interruptedly leafy.
Leaves lanceolate, acute, finely serrated throughout.
Capsule pear-shaped, nearly erect.
Syn. Bryum interruptum. Dicks. Crypt, fasc. 4 .1 3 .
t. 1 1 ./. 6 . Sm. FI. Brit. 1363.
F o u n d on the alpine rocks of Scotland by Mr. Dickson,
■who bestowed on us a specimen, here delineated, from Ben
Nevis. We have borrowed from the original sketch, made
for his plate, what more decidedly shows the interrupted foliation
of this species.
The perennial stems constitute dense tufts, an inch or two
high, and are determinately branched, interruptedly leafy, red
in the naked parts. Leaves clustered, bright green or yellowish,
shining, reticulated, lanceolate, acute, with a mid-rib,
equally and finely serrated; the lower ones more distant, small
and short. Fruitstalk erect, red, hardly an inch high, terminal
in its origin, though surmounted by branches. Capsule
nearly erect, brown, pear-shaped, with a rather wide mouth,
obscurely reticulated. Lid hemispherical, with a blunt point.