94 MOSSES. 



the lower, and arranged in a starry form ; the plants grew 

 separate, not in clusters. The urns gave evidence of 

 having been ripe early in the spring ; they were large and 

 oval ; the leaves were of a very dark green. We at once 

 agreed that it was the Dotted Thyme Thread moss (Mnium 

 punctatum, Jig. 3.) 



In a wood behind my cousin's house in Swaledale, 

 where rocks abound, and birch and willow trees droop 

 over oozy places, I found another of these Thyme 

 Thread mosses. It was covering the perpendicular 

 surface of shady rocks, often spreading over their tops, 

 too — its rounded leaves terminated in a sudden sharp 

 point, procuring for it the name of Pointed Thyme 

 Thread moss (M. cuspidatum). The stems were numerous, 

 each bearing a footstalk and urn, the latter much inflated, 

 egg shaped, and with a blunt lid. There were a number 

 of long barren branches trailing on the rocks, giving the 

 plant a likeness to a Liverwort. Here, too, I found the 

 Long-beaked species (M. rostratum) resembling its neigh- 

 bour in habit, but with broader leaves and more slender 

 urns. The serrated species (M. serratum) I have got 

 more recently from shady banks in the Herefordshire 

 woods. Here the leaves are narrower than in either of 

 the preceding mosses, and the lid of the urn larger and 

 more pointed. The plants were growung in a scattered 

 fashion. Our kind ally from Blair Athole has supplied 

 us with the Eound-fruited Thyme Thread moss (M. 

 subglobossum) the denizen of marshes. Its leaves are 

 large and broadly ovate, and the urn small and round. 

 The many fruited species (M. afhne) bearing two or 

 more urns on a stem, I have found in woods in Swale- 



