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H Y P N U M ifttoeattmn- l t:;i •
Matted Hypnum.
CR r p TO G AM IA Mufci. &
G en. Char. Capjule with a lid. Veilfmooth. Flower-
Jlalk from a lateral tubercle in veiled witli fcales.
Spec. Char. Shoots creeping, with Ihortilh branches.
Leaves fpreading, lanceolate, taper-pointed. Cap-
1 Liles urn-fhaped, inclining, with a recurved beak.
S yn. -Hypnum intricatum. Scbreb. FI. Lipf. 99. Dickf.
Crypt, fa/c. 2. 10. IVith. Bot. A rr.v . 3, 120.
T h i s mofs was firft difcovered in England by Mr. Robert
Teefdale, F.L.S. in fome woods on the fouth-eaft fide of the
river at Matlock-bath, from whence Dr. Smith fent it to Mr.
Dickfon, and from his original fpecimens our figure was drawn.
It well agrees with Schrebers defcription, and with the figures
of Vaillant quoted by him (tab. 28. f. 2, 6, 7, 8).
The {hoots thickly interwoven form a clofe dark-green mat
on the decayed bark of trees in damp woods, and extend to
feveral inches in length. The branches are fhort and ilender,
clothed with alternate, lanceolate, {harp-pointed, entire leaves,
thofe at the fummit being paleft; and, as Schreber remarks, the
leaves are moft lax and fpreading in a dried ftate. Numerous
reddifti {talks, fcarcely an inch high, each arifing from an oval
bulb at the fide of the Item, bear fmall, (hort, inclining,-
urn-lhaped capfules, red at the margin, and fringed with numerous
teeth. Their lid is fhort, fwelling, and terminated by
a fhortifh recurved beak. Veil flender, cylindrical, whitifh,
but not fo remarkably white and confpicuous as in H. ferpens,
which this fpecies otherwife much refembles in habit, though
not in the form of its capfules.