212 MOSSES. CHAP. II. 



surmounted with a minute and slender process re- 

 sembling a hair or thread. Most of them are fur- 

 nished with a midrib, (by which they are often 

 keeled), together with some parallel nerves ; though 

 many of them are altogether destitute of nerves, 

 exhibiting an entirely smooth and even surface, as 

 in Hypnum splendens. Some of them, however, are 

 furnished with a sort of net- work of veins, inter- 

 secting one another and giving the whole a finely 

 reticulated appearance, as in Splachnum reticulatum 

 (PI. VII. Fig. 7). Others are most beautifully 

 dotted as well as reticulated, as in Bryum puncta- 

 tum ; and others are delicately streaked, as in Hyp- 

 num striatum. Their colour is generally of a most 

 beautiful green mixed with a tinge of yellow, 

 though when placed under the microscope and in a 

 strong light most of them are diaphanous, dis- 

 covering a sort of membranous texture, from which 

 they derive the property of twisting or curling up 

 when dry. 



Distribu- In their distribution they are for the most part 

 closely crowded together, and originating on all 

 sides of the stem or branch, the apex of the lower 

 overlapping the base of the higher in the form of 

 tiles. In many species they are distichous or two 

 rowed, giving the stem or branch a winged-like 

 appearance, and diverging at an angle more or less 

 acute, as in Dicranum tamarindifolium; but in 

 some, though distichous or scattered in their 

 insertion, the points are all directed to the one 



