210 MO- CHAIMI. 



mould. This observation occurs in Withering* as 

 applicable to bis Ilijpiunii pane tin urn, the llijpnurtl 

 sftlendensof Smith. lint I conceive it to be an ob- 

 servation admitting of much greater latitude of 

 application, the process in rjucstion beino- distinctly 

 discernible not only in the; case of Jfyjtnmn splcn- 

 drns, but in that also of Jlypnum pra'loHgum, 

 Jlnj/ftfi itgulatumi and particularly 'J'orlula ruralix, 

 where the gradations of change are so very well 

 defined as to be obvious to the sightest inspection. 

 I have indeed found traces of this change more or 

 less conspicuous in almost all I have yet ex- 



amined, and am inclined to believe that it pervades 

 and charactcri/es the whole tribe of MoSSCS. If so, 

 it will well account for their peculiar capacity of 

 forming an original soil for the. growth of larger 

 VCclabIi:s even on the. barren rock, to which the, 

 often cling. 



Sometimes the tem is proliferous, that is when 

 the shoot of the first year does not afterwards (Ion- 

 gate by the extremity, and so constitute a main and 

 uninterrupted stem, hut sends out new shoots from 

 the middle or near the top, which become ultimately 

 the principal stems lll( - original stems being 

 gradually converted into roots, as in Hypnumfro* 

 li. forum and others. 



Modifies- '/'/,c, Krtinchc.s. The branches are in their fttrne- 

 tuic similar to that of the stem, and are distributed' 



I 



