CRYPTOGAMIA Musci.
Gen. Char. Outer fringe of 32 or 64 short incurved
teeth : inner a flat undivided membrane. Feil generally
double : the outer hairy.
S p e c . C h a r . Stem simple. Leaves linear-lanceolate,
beardless, their edges and keel quite smooth and
entire. Capsule inclining, ovate, with six angles,
contracted at the base, without a pedestal. Fringe
of sixty-four teeth.
Syn. Polytrichum sexangulare. Swartz in Schrad.
Journ. v._ 2. i74.
O n e of the most curious acquisitions of Messrs. Turner
and Hooker, who gathered it on Ben Nevis in their last-year’s
journey to Scotland, but not in fructification. The annexed
specimen in fruit was sent us long ago from the Saltzburg alps
of Germany, by our much-esteemed and very liberal correspondent
Dr. Schrader, with whom in the present disordered
state of the world we can have no communication.
Mr. Flork, it seems, an eminent alpine botanist, first found
and named this species of Polytrichum. It is known by its
leaves being perfectly smooth and entire both at the edges and
keel, linear-lanceolate, slightly incurved, channelled above,
convex beneath, without any terminal hair. Its capsule is
ovate and 6-sided, contracted at the base, so as to resemble an
apophysis, but we think it has none. Veil double. Lid awl-
shaped. Fringe of 64 minute white slender teeth standing in
pairs.