TORTULACE^E.] 256 [Leptodontium. 



Dioicous; gregariously caespitose, nearly simple, i 2 in. high, 

 fragile, yellowish, succulent. Leaves reflexed, squarroso-patulous, 

 flexuose when moist, curled when dry, from an erect base, oblong- 

 ligulate, apiculate, coarsely and unequally serrate at apex, carinate, 

 margin plane above, recurved below, nerve vanishing just below the 

 apex ; cells at base elongated, pellucid, smooth, above small, 

 hexagonal rounded, finely papillose, perich. bracts broader, vaginant. 

 Caps, on a long slender yellowish seta, erect, narrowly cylindric, lepto- 

 dermous, fuscous, when dry sulcate, slightly contracted below the 

 mouth ; lid conic with a short obtuse point ; annulus narrow, frag- 

 mentary ; teeth slender, fugacious, nearly entire, bifid or cohering, 

 pale, smooth, arising below the orifice of caps. Male plant more 

 slender, infl. terminal, bracts ovato-lanc., concave, erecto-patent serrate. 



HAB. Bare gravelly and turfy places, not common. Fr. 2 4. 



Croydon (Dickson). Ben Ledi and Callander (Walker- Arnott). Buxton (Greville). 

 Congleton Cloud and Alderley Edge, Cheshire, c. fr. (Wilson) ! ! Wrexham c. fr. 

 (Bowman 1835) ! Manchester c. fr. (Hobson) ! Todmorden c. fr. (Nowell 1848) ! 

 Forley, Derby, c. fr. (Hunt) ! Blackdown, Sussex (Mitten). Glenprosen, Clova. c. fr. 

 (Fcrgusson) ! ! Powder hill and Bagley wood, Oxon., c. fr. (Boswell 1863) ! ! 

 Penzance (Curnow) \ 



This moss appears to be more frequent in Britain than on the Continent, 

 and is not found in S. Europe. Did. styriacus JURATZ. appears to be only a 

 variety with the leaves erecto-patent and more distantly serrated. 



2. LEPTODONTIUM GEMMASCENS (Mitt.) Braithw. 



Short, laxly tufted, nearly simple. Leaves oblong-lanceolate, 

 erecto-patent, the nerve excurrent and bearing obovate gemmae at point, 

 margin serrulate at apex. (T. XXXVIII, A.) 



SYN. Dldymodon gemmascens MITT. MSS. 



Didymodon ftexifolius Var. (3. gemmiferus SCHIMP. Synops. 2 ed. 164 (1876). 

 Streptopogon gemmascens MITT. Phil. Trans, v. 168, p. 33 (1879). 



Stems short, fragile, $ 2 in. high, laxly tufted, scarcely branched, 

 bright green above, fuscous at base. Leaves oblong-lanceolate, 

 acuminate, erecto-patent, the lower shorter, somewhat recurved, margin 

 erect, minutely spinuloso-serrate at apex ; nerve in the lower leaves 

 reaching point, in the upper excurrent and bearing at tip a globular mass 

 of obovate green gemmae, often having fine radicles intermixed ; cells at 

 base elongated and pellucid, above rounded, papillose on both sides. 

 Fruit unknown. 



HAB. Old thatched roofs in Sussex. 



Hurstpierpoint and Amberley (Mitten 1845) ! I Near Liff, Dundee (Fergusson). 



