186 A MANUAL OF MOSSES 



inclined to horizontal or pendent, cylindric to prismatically 

 4-6-sided or cubic, collum various; annulus none or uniseriate 

 with three or four transitional bordering cells; peristome rarely 

 lacking, mostly simple with 32 to 64, rarely 16, Ungulate, short, 

 unbarred teeth, triangular in cross-section, rising from a basal 

 membrane, the teeth hyaline, often with a colored median line, 

 incurved to meet the disk-like apex (epiphragm) of the 

 columella ; spores mostly small, .008-.012 or .014-.021 mm., 

 mostly smooth ; operculum apiculate to rostrate from a conic 

 to convex base ; calyptra cucullate, rarely glabrous, mostly 

 spinulose to long, villous and felted. 



A cosmopolitan family, mostly on siliceous or other non- 

 calcareous soils ; in colder regions often forming large masses 

 of vegetation. 



Key to the Genera. 



a. Capsules cylindric. b. 



a. Capsules four-angled or six-angled. 3. Polytrichum. 



b. Leaves not crisped when dry; calyptra hairy. 



2. Pogonatitm. 

 b. Leaves crisped when dry; calyptra not hairy. 



1. Catharinaea. 



1. CATHARINAEA Ehrhart, Weber and Mohr. 

 (Atrichiun Beauvois). 



Stems of moderate height, in loose tufts or gregarious, 

 dark green to bronze when old, central strand generally Avell 

 developed ; rhizome creeping, branched, bearing loosely- to 

 thickly-leaved erect shoots, densely radiculose at the base ; 

 leaves lingulate to ovate-oblong, not sheathing nor narrowed 

 above the base but slightly embracing the stem, margined, ser- 

 rate ; crisped when dry, costa narrow, on the upper side with 

 1-12 narrow lamellae, ending below or in the apex, towards the 

 apex often spinose-serrate ; cells chlorophyllose, the upper 

 rounded-hexagonal, smooth, the basal mostly rectangular : seta 

 long, erect; capsule smooth, cylindric to oval, rarely obovate, 

 often more or less curved ; operculum long-rostrate ; peristome 

 of 32 teeth with pale borders and a median orange to reddish- 

 brown line, the basal membrane narrow and reddisli-brown 

 or orange; calyptra smooth, except at the apex, where it is 

 spinulose-papillose : mostly dioicous. 



A cosmopolitan genus comprising about 43 species, grow- 

 ing on earth, mostly in the temperate zones ; 19 species in 

 North America ; four species in our region. 



Key to the Species. 



a. Upper leaf-cells .015 to .025 mm., in diameter; costa and lamellae 

 not exceeding one-third of the width of the upper half of leaf. 



b. 



