POLYTRICHACE^;.] 42 [Oligotrichum. 



Male plants in distinct tufts, taller and more slender ; infl. discoid, 

 inner perigonial bracts narrow at base, suddenly expanded and then 

 contracted into an acute point, the nerve slightly lamellose at apex. 



HAB. Among stones and grass by the sides of streams, and among the 

 sandy deposit washed down by the water, not common. Male and 

 barren plants only. 



Boggy ground, Rowley moor, near Rochdale (Nowell 1848). Staley brushes, Lancashire 

 (Dr. Wood 1860) ! ! Keb clough, Todmorden (Nowell 1860). Several places near 

 Hebden bridge, Yorkshire, and in the Saddleworth district (Hunt, Hobkirk) ! ! Rattle 

 brook, Dartmoor (Mr. Brent] ! ! and Tay Cleave (Holmes 1868). Near the head of the 

 Luchir, Carmarthen (Rev. A. Ley 1878) ! ! 



Var. ft. Densifolia Lindb. Op. cit. p. 150. 



Plants dwarf, dense leaved ; leaves broader, elliptical, more patulous. 

 SYN. Atrichum crispum v&r.foliis latioribus, ellipticis WILS. MSS. 

 HAB. Oakmere, Cheshire (Wilson 1860) ! Male plant only. 



The fertile plant has only been found in N. America, and has a shorter 

 stem, with the leaves denser, longer, more lingulate and crisped. 



2. OLIGOTRICHUM LAM. DE C. 



(Fl. franc. 3 ed., ii, 491 (1805). ) 



Stems simple, innovating from subterranean stolons. Leaves 

 lanceolate or oblong, incurved when dry, very concave ; lamellae 

 numerous, high, strongly undulated. Capsule erect, ovate-oblong, 

 terete, or gibbose and compressed ; calyptra cucullate, with a few 

 scattered hairs or naked ; lid conic, rostrate ; teeth of peristome 

 slender, irregular. 



This genus is named from the calyptra having " few hairs," and 

 stands immediately between Catharinea and Polytrichum, agreeing with the 

 former in its mode of growth and capsule, and with the latter in its rigidity, 

 more opake leaves and areolation. 



Several other allied genera have been formed, which are perhaps 

 better regarded as sections of the present, and we thus have i. Euoligotrichum, 

 of which our British species is the type, and including others from South 

 America and the E. Indies ; 2. Psilopilum, of five species, one of which is 

 found in the extreme north of Europe; 01. glabratum (\VAHL.) Psilopilum 

 arcticum BRID. 3. Dendroligotrichum, represented by the giant Pol. dendroides 

 BRID. 4. Polytrichadelphus, embracing some 20 species, nearly all South 

 American. 



Although the character of the genus differs but little from that of 

 Catharinea, it has a peculiar habit which is very striking in the growing state, 

 and the lid is so slightly attached, that it generally falls away with the 

 calyptra. 



