38. [ I 0 37 ]
H Y P N UM ferpens.
Creeping White-veiled. Hypnum.
CRYPTOGAMIA Mußt.
G en . Char. Fringe double: outer of 16 tapering
teeth : inner a toothed membrane. Flowers lateral.
Fruit-flalk from a fcaly (heath.
Spec. Char. Stem creeping. Branches irregularly
fubditfided, very (lender. Leaves ftraigbt, ovate,
pointed, imbricated. Capfules oblong, curved.
S yn . Hypnum terpens. Linn. Sp.PL 1 5 9 6 . H u d f.t,07.
W ith . 865. Hull. 274. Relh. 4 1 6 . Sibtb. 302.
Abbot. 2,5 1 . Hedw. Crypt, v . 4 . 4 3 . t. 18. Sp.
Mufc. 268.
H. trichodes ferpens, fetis et capfulis longis ere&is.
D ill. Mufc. 3 2 9 . t. 4 2 . f . 64.
A VERY general Mofs in moift (hady places, running over
decayed wood, trunks of trees, (tones and earth, producing
flowers and fruit at almoft all feafons when there is humidity
in the air fufficient to favour its growth.
Stems clofely creeping, by means of numerous, (hort, fibrous,
perennial roots, and thickly branched. Branches irregular,
Ample or fubdivided, very (lender; clothed with fmall, pale-
green, upright, ovate, entire, (harp-pointed, concave leaves,
deftitute of keel or nerve, and imbricated every. way. The
fruit-ftalks fpring from the fide of the main ftem, and
the (welled bafe of each is enveloped with a few lanceolate
pointed pellucid fcales, conflituting the perichatium of Linnaeus.
The (talks are of a brilliant red in their lower part,
pale above. Capfule inclined or curved, cylindrical, contracted
under the rim. Lid (hort, conical, with a little bluntifh point.
Veil white, tipped with light brown, very confpicuous, and at
firft fight diftinguifhing this fpecies from H. prtelongum, whofe
capfules indeed are much (horter.
The reafons given p. 1021 on the fubject of the inner
fringe induce us to form the generic character of Hypnum fo
as to include the Lefkia of Hedwig, there being moreover no
natural difference of habit to keep them diftindt.