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POLYTRICHUM subrotundum.
Dwarf Round-headed Hair-moss.
CRYPTOGAMIA Musci.
Gen. Char. Outer fringe of 32 or 64 short incurved
teeth : inner a flat undivided membrane. Veil generally
double: the outer hairy.
S p e c . C h a r . Leaves lanceolate, obtuse, entire, rigid.
Capsule turbinate, nearly upright. Stem very short.
S y n . Polytrichum subrotundum. Huds. ed. 1 . 400.
Sm. FI. Brit. 1378. Men z. Tr. o f Linn. Soc. v. 4.
68. Hull. 247. Turn. Muse. Hib. 89.
P. pumilum. Swartz. Muse. Suec. 77 and 108. t. 9.
f . 19. Hedw. Sp. Muse. 97. t. 2 1 . f . 7—9.
P. nanum, capsulis subrotundis galeritis, aloes folio
non serrato. Dill. Muse. 428. t. 55. f . 6. A—F.
COMMON on heaths and sandy or loamy banks, bearing its
capsules in the winter or early spring.
The root consists of fine dense woolly fibres, and is presumed
to be annual. Stem scarcely any. Leaves numerous,
of a dark dull green, rigid, thickish, oblong or lanceolate,
obtuse, beardless, channelled, for the most part quite entire,
the lowermost only being sometimes toothed at the summit.
Fruit-stalk solitary, not an inch high, nearly straight, reddish
brown, thickened at the top. Capsule almost erect, roundish
when young, short and turbinate, with a very wide mouth;
when old, a little oblique. Fringe of 39. slender teeth, soon
turning black. Lid convex, red-edged, with a curved beak,
which is conical when young, as in some other species. Veil
double, the outermost yellowish brown.
Mr. J. D. Sowerby has observed that what is above called
thje inner fringe is more properly the membranous base of the
lid, often attached to the column by its centre; and that there
seems in this, as well as in P. undulatum, t. 1220, a real
membranous peristomium within the teeth. This gives quite
a new idea of the generic character.