JO t 3037 ]
H Y P N U M abiétinum.
Fir-branched Feather-moss.
CR YPTOGAMIA Musci.
G en. Char. Caps, ovate-oblong, from a lateral scaly
sheath. Outer fringe of 16 teeth, dilated at the base:
inner a variously-toothed membrane. Veil smooth.
Spec. Char. Stem pinnate, shaggy. Leaves closely
imbricated every way, heart-shaped, pointed, n’early
entire, with one rib and two plaits. Capsule drooping.
Lid conical.
Swn. Hypnum abietinum. Linn. Sp. Pl. 1591. Sm.
FI. Brit. 1300. Hedw. Sp. Muse. 353. Crypt,
v. 4. 84. t. 32. Buds. 500. With. 855. Hull.
271. Relh. 435. Sibth. 296. Abbot. 246.
Necker Muse. 163.
H, lutescens, alis subulatis tenacibus. Dill. Muse.
280. t. 2.5. f . 17.
H. repens filicinum trichoides montanum, ramulis te-
retibus lutescentibus non divisis. Dill, in Rail
Syn. 86.
N o t unfrequent on the dry chalky hills of Kent, Oxfordshire,
&c., but the fructification is so extremely rare that
Dillenius never saw it, and Necker, though he quotes the
place where Liunæus describes it, asserts that it cannot be
found. Our specimens of the fruit wete sent by Professor
Swartz.
The stems are about as long as the finger, decumbent,
densgly, and generally simply, pinnate* the branches short,
acute, spreading. Leaves of a pale tawny opaque green,
close-pressed, heartshaped, or broad ovate, sharp-pointed,
entire or nearly so, a little revolute when dry, with one rib
and two lateral plaits. Their reticulations seem to be elongated
by age. Among the leaves the stem is clothed with
dense branched jointed fibres, varying in length. Sheaths
slender, close, pale. Fruitstalks 2 inches long, wavy, crimson,
shining. Capsule inclining, ovato-cylindrical, curved,
tinged with red, very minutely reticulated. Outer fringe
red ; inner yellow. Lid, according to Hedwig, conical.