NOTES ON MOSSES. 201 
thick and covered with radicles ; bracts minute, brownish, ovate ; 
deeply toothed ; fruitstalk rigid, erect, straight ; 1%—1 in. high, 
deep purple, very scabrous. Capsule semiovate and somewhat 
boat-shaped above. ‘This strange plant is found on the earth or 
on decayed wood, especially in fir wood, and fruits from May to 
July. It has an annoying habit of disappearing from the station it 
occupies ; we can therefore never rely upon finding it a second 
time in the same locality; thus, its discovery is generally hailed 
with acclamation by collectors. 
Another species found on rotten branches in pine wood in Scot- 
land, is &. zxdustata, with capsules more erect, and not flattened 
on the upper surface. 
Allied to the genus Azrichum, and fruiting in June and July in 
alpine and sub-alpine situations where the soil is barren and slop- 
ing, is Oligotrichum hercynicum. Stems %—1 in. high; leaves 
rather rigid, curved when dry, concave ; the margin inflexed not 
thickened ; capsule erect, ovate, cylindrical, broad and rounded at 
the base ; lid about half as long as the capsule ; calyptra with a 
very few scattered hairs, sometimes naked ; peristome short, teeth 
pale irregular. 
Two very rare Mosses, named after a German botanist and 
found on rocks in Scotland, are Zimmia Austriaca and ZT? Norvegica. 
Named from avAa€g, aos, a furrow, and prov, a Moss, is the genus 
Aulacomnium. Like Tetraphis this genus is very seldom in fruit, 
the plant being continued by means of gemmee at the apex of a 
short naked stem which tips the leafy stem. In A. palustre, the 
marsh Thread Moss, these gemmee, or pseudopodia, are discoid 
in shape, while in A. axdrogynum, the narrow-leaved Thread Moss, 
they form a little greenish ball at the apex of the stem. 
Leptobryum pyriforme, the golden Thread Moss, is found fruiting 
in May and June on sandstone rocks ; its stems scarcely reaching 
¥% in. in height. The lower leaves are lanceolate, entire ; upper 
linear-setaceous, flexuose; serrate at summit, nerve sometimes 
reaching apex; capsules pyriform, pendulous on a slender flexuose 
seta ; lid convex-mammillate. 
BLryum is an ancient name of the famous Greek botanist Dios- 
corides, given by Dillenius to a genus and its affinities, numbering 
forty-nine species. 
They are perennial Mosses with terminal fructification, growing 
on the ground or on rocks ; rarely on the trunks of trees, in dense 
tufts. 
The capsules are pyriform, clavate or oblong, inclined or pen- 
dulous ; smooth, with a tapering neck or apophysis ; varying in 
length, on a long fruitstalk ; annulus simple or compound ; lid con- 
vex, more or less pointed, or sometimes shortly rostellate ; calyptra 
small, cucullate, fugacious ; peristome double; outer of sixteen 
