36 MOSS HABITATS. 
MO 625° HA Bub ink Pap 
BY JAMES E. BAGNALL. 
(Continued from Vol. I., page 320.) 
A newly-ploughed field, or, better still, one that has lain fallow for 
some little time, although presenting few charms for the general observer 
of Nature, will be spots to which the would-be bryologist must give his 
particular attention, and during those dreary months which intervene 
between October and April he will, if in any way an enthusiast, find 
plenty of work for his microscope. 
The mosses to be found in such habitats are usually the simplest, 
from a pretty point of view the least noticeable, and the shortest lived of 
any he may study, and when preserved for the herbarium are, perhaps, 
the most disappointing, looking very often more like dried masses of mud 
than aught else, stili these earth mosses or Phascei are worthy of his 
attention. The plan I adopt with these minuter species is not only to 
dry some of them with their underlying mud, but also to mount a 
few specimens of each on the ordinary 3in. by lin. slips of glass, in 
glycerine jelly, for my cabinet, and very pretty objects many of them 
make when thus prepared. 
The older Botanists placed all the Phascci in the genus Phascum, but 
modern Botanists, seeing that the group was a very heterogeneous one, 
have split these Phascei into several genera, suchas Plewridium, Phascum, 
Spherangium, Ephemerum, Archidium, &c. I shall speak only of those 
that I have myself found most frequent. 
Besides these I also find in like habitats such mosses as Pottia 
minutula, Funaria fascicularis, and Tortula wnguiculata. 
The Phascet usually occur in scattered patches, and, being minute, 
require the constant use of the field lens, and rather close searching in 
many cases. Taking their general characteristics they may readily be 
known by their small bladder-like capsules, usually more or less concealed 
by the surrounding leaves, the fruit-stalk being very short in most species, 
and by the absence of a true lid or operculum | Plate IV., Fig. 11.]* 
Pleuridium subulatum is a not unfrequent inhabitant of sandy and 
marly fields. It may also often be found in great abundance in the cleared 
spaces of woods, and isin good condition about April; will be found in 
yellowish patches, often rather extensive ; the capsule is oval, and 
immersed in the awl-shaped bristly-looking leaves; the leaves are rigid, 
and have a broad nerve, which scarcely extends to the tip of the leaf; the 
uppermost leaves are longer than the lower ones, and much narrower. 
Phascum cuspidatum is a frequent denizen of sandy fields, and occurs 
in small scattered light-green patches. The leaves are large for the size of 
the plant, are concave, oblong lance-shaped, and somewhat keeled, with 
the margin turned over towards the under side ; the nerve projects beyond 
the leaf-tip, forming a short cusp-like point; the capsule is roundish and 
more or less hidden among the leaves; leaf-cells quadrate, slightly 
papillose ; spores slightly roughened. 
* All the references in this Article are to Plate IV., Vol. I., facing page 193. 
