SS2 



THE NATURALIST. 



hole. But once out of the glare of 

 the sun, the soft, glittering emerald 

 light spread over the sides and ro(^f 

 of the cave, was certainly, although 

 we had heard of it before, more 

 beautiful than any of us expected. 

 The "golden-green light" described 

 by Mr. Bowman in Mag. Nat. Hist. 

 (vol. ili. page 462,) is an eminently 

 characteristic term for the appear- 

 ance of the young plants as we saw 

 them, and any one, whether botanist 

 or not, could not fail to be delighted 

 with the sight, which is well worth 

 the climbing and uphill work re- 

 quired to reach its locality. I have 

 since seen a specimen of this moss 

 said to have been gathered " in the^ 

 neighbourhood of Mirfield," by one 

 of the members of the Huddersfield 

 Naturalists' Society. 



S. osmumlacea belongs to the ac- 

 rocarpous mosses — division gymnos- 

 tomi — being without peristome, and 

 having the fruit terminal on a short 

 peduncle. The whole plant, in- 

 cluding fruit-stalk, is seldom more 

 than one quarter to one half of an 

 inch in height, and were it not for 

 the brilliant appearance it presents 

 in the dark, might easily be over- 

 looked. 



Bridel places it among his Fili- 

 coidel, along with Fissidens, both of 

 which are remarkable for the dispo- 

 sition of their leaves, which are two- 

 ranked in a vertical plane. The 

 leaves are very delicate and tender, 



with large almost diamond-shaped 

 (rhomboid) areolae, only partly filled 

 with small granules. The inflores- 

 cence is dioicous, both barren and 

 feYtile flowers being very similar, the 

 latter having somewhat larger leaves. 

 The capsule, which is very small, 

 is oval or subglobose in form, pale 

 brown, when ripe : it is completely 

 destitute of peristome, and has a 

 very obscure annulus. The calyptra 

 is very small, cleft on one side, (di- 

 midiate,) and early falls away, leaving 

 visible the conical lid, from the once 

 supposed character of which the 

 genus is named, (Schistos, cleft, and 

 stege, a lid.y Hedwig, and some 

 others, supposed the lid to be spon- 

 taneously fissile, into numerous 

 radiating segments, but Mr. Wilson 

 says, " The o^^erculum is the very 

 thickest and most sturdy that I 

 have ever met with in any moss, 

 filling up the mouth exactly like a 

 bung, composed strictly of cells of a 

 hexagonal form pervading the thick- 

 ness of the lid, and not unfrequently 

 disposed so as to stand in rows from 

 the centre to the circumference, so 

 that when any part of the lid is 

 obliquely placed, with respect to the 

 eye, the partitions of the cells in 

 perspective represent dark lines re- 

 sembling radii ; this appearance is 

 so constant when the lower or con- 

 cave side of the lid is uppermost, in 

 every part but that which may hap- 

 pen to be turned at right angles to 



