296 American Midland Naturalist Monograph No. 6 



cles; stem-leaves usually smaller than branch-leaves, broadly ovate and broadly 

 lon^-acuminate : seta papillose, about 2 cm long, flexuous, slender, castaneous, 

 rough; capsule small, turgid-oval, often blackish when ripe, the urn about 2.5- 

 3x1 mm, dorsally gibbous, abruptly more or less horizontal, sub-globose when 

 empty; annulus large; exothecial cells rounded-quadrate and small at the rim, 

 oblong-rectangular and a little larger below, all strongly castaneous or yellow- 

 ish and incrassate; peristome-teeth castaneous below, set far back from the 

 edge of rim, margined, rather widely confluent at base, lamellate, cross-striolate 

 dorsally below, hyaline and papillose at apex, strongly trabeculate; segments 

 slender, nearly as long as teeth, carinately split and often widely gaping in the 

 middle, yellowish; basal membrane about two-fifths as high as the teeth, the 

 cilia 2 or 3, strongly appendiculate, hyaline granular, a little shorter than the 

 segments; spores about .012-. 01 5 mm, greenish-yellow or brownish, slightly 

 roughened, medium.-walled, mature in winter. 



On moist, rotten wood, stumps, bases of trees, earth, in moist woods in 

 hilly or mountainous regions; Europe, and from Canada to northern United 

 States as far south as New Jersey and Pennsylvania. 



Rather rare in our region. Elk Co.: Benezette. McMinn. (Porter's Catalogue). 

 Lawrence Co.: Kennedy's Mills. Kellar Shelar. Nov. 20, 1931. McKean Co.: On 

 shaded banks along Marilla Brook, Bradford, April 25, 1897. D.A.B. (figured). 

 Washington Co.: On stone near creek, Snowden Sta. Dec. 3, 1892. Linn & Simon- 

 ton, No. 96. 



10. Brachythecium veluTINUm [Linnaeus] Bryologia Europaea 



(Hypnum velutinum Linnaeus; H. declivum Mitten) 



Plate LVI 



Slender and usually in low, soft, silky mats, bright or yellowish-green, 

 prostrate: stems radiculose; branches numerous, short, in our specimens the 

 branches usually less than 5 mm long, crowded, irregular or curved, more or 

 less sub-pinnate; branch-leaves loosely erect-spreading to falcate-secund at tips 

 of branches, more widely spreading when drv, lanceolate to lance-ovate, in 

 ours mainly 1-1.5 mm long, tapering to a long acumination, serrate, apically 

 often twisted, shortly decurrent, faintly plicate, glossy when dry, marginally 

 plane; costa slender, reaching somewhat beyond the middle; median leaf-cells 

 narrow-linear, rather obtuse, about 8-15:1, the apical similar but a little shorter, 

 the basal shorter, the alar few, rather opaque, incrassate, sub-quadrate; the 

 stem-leaves similar but usually not so large as some of the branch-leaves; p>eri- 

 chaetial leaves erect, slenderly acuminate, up to 1.8 mm long; seta about 1.5 

 cm long, very rough, castaneous, often flattened and twisted when dry; cap- 

 sule about 2-2.5 mm long, 2-3:1, turgid-oblong, dorsally gibbous to sub- 

 arcuate, castaneous, inclined to horizontally spreading; exothecial cells small 

 and rounded-quadrate at rim, oblong-rectangular below, all densely incrassate; 

 peristome-teeth slender, castaneous and confluent at base, apicallv hyaline and 

 papillose, dorsally cross-striolate, closely trabeculate and lamellate; segments 

 as long as the teeth, slender, carinately split between the nodes, yellowish, the 



