POLYTRICHACEAE 165 



Male plants are often numerous, and when the leaves 

 are moist and well expanded the bright-red bracts of 

 the rosettes look like tiny flowers. 



Range, northern North America, south to Alabama and 

 California; Greenland; Europe; Asia; South America. 



a. 2 



Polytrichum juniperinum Willd. (Plate VII, Fig. 6) 

 is a common species, found in thin woods and in open 

 places. The stems are 1-4 inches high, rarely branched. 

 The margins of the leaves are folded in. This folding in 

 can generally be seen, in this species, at least, toward 

 the base of the largest leaves. The leaves are a hluer- 

 green than in the other large common species; the cap- 

 sule is oblong, sharply four-angled; the operculum is red 

 and has a short beak; the calyptra covers the capsule, 

 and the seta is red and shining. 



Range, Arctic and temperate North America; a cosmo- 

 politan. 



Polytrichum juniperinum can usually be distin- 

 guished by the bluish-green of the leaves, which, to- 

 gether with the size of the plants, will serve as a good 

 field characteristic when the folded leaf-margins cannot 

 be readily seen. The plants are larger in every way 

 than P. pilifcrum, the preceding species, also having 

 bluish- or gray-green leaves with folded margins. Com- 

 pared with other common species, besides the cok>r of 

 the leaves, the oblong capsule separates P. jiinipcri- 



