JtNNiNGS: Manual of Mosses — 34. Brachytheciaceae 299 



pilifcrous at the apex, plane-margined, serrate to entire; costa simple, ending 

 at or above the middle of the leaf, never ending in a dorsal spine; median 

 leaf-cells narrowly prosenchymatous, smooth, the basal, shorter, thickened, and 

 porose, the alar more or less numerous, short-rectangular to quadrate, mostly 

 green; inner perichaetial leaves from a sheathing base abruptly long and finely 

 acuminate: seta elongate, mostly rough; capsule cemuous to horizontal, oval 

 to oblong-oval, more or less dorsally gibbous, rarely erect and sub-cylindric; 

 annulus present; peristome as in Brachythecium; lid usually more or less long- 

 rostrate from a conic base. 



A small genus of about 15 species, mostly in temperate regions on rocks 

 and earth; 4 or more species in North America; 2 species in our region. 



Key to the Species 



A. Stems without stolons, almost regularly pmnate; the acumination about one-half as 

 long as the body of the leaf: seta rough 1. C. ptliftrum 



A. Stem with stolons, irregularly branched; the leaf-acumination short: seta smooth 



2. C. Boscii. 



1. CiRRlPHYLLUM PILIFERUM [Schreber] Grout 

 (Hypnum piliferum Schreber; Eurynchium piliferum Bryologia Europaea ) 



Robust, in loose straggling patches, glossy yellow-green: stems elongate, 

 up to 10 or 15 cm long, prostrate, creeping, radiculose, more or less pinnate; 

 the ends of the stems and branches of a paler shining green; leaves concave, 

 widely oblong-ovate, spoon-shaped, abruptly hair-pointed from the rounded 

 apex, the piliferous acumination often reaching one-half the length of the main 

 portion of the leaf, towards the apex of the stems and branches the leaves m.ore 

 closely imbricate and forming cuspidate terete points, but with the piliferous 

 leaf-tips flexuous-spreading, leaf-margin usually denticulate, plane or inflexed; 

 when dry the leaves striate; median leaf-cells about 10-15:1, the basal more 

 lax, shorter and wider, the angular forming a well-defined patch, large, oval- 

 rectangular; the branch-leaves somewhat smaller, narrower and more gradually 

 pointed; costa broad at base, reaching to about three-fourths the length of the 

 leaf: seta about 2.5 cm long, rough; capsule ovoid-oblong to turgid, somewhat 

 arcuate, when dry and empty strongly arcuate and constricted below the mouth, 

 about 2 mm long; lid conic with a subulate beak about as long as urn, 2 mm; 

 peristome large, teeth long, the segments about as long, the cilia nodose to 

 sub-appendiculate, 2 or 3, about as long as the segments; spores mature in fall 

 but capsules rarely found. 



In wet woods and swampy meadows, on the ground or on the bases of 

 trees; Europe, and from New Brunswick to New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and 

 Ohio; Washington. 



Rare in our region. Elk Co.: Benezette. McMinn. (Porters Catalogue). McKean 

 Co.: D. A. Burnett. (Porter's Catalogue). 



