70 HANDBOOK OF BRITISH MOSSES. 



are decidedly serrate, as well as by its growing on rocks, not 

 on trees. 



b. Dioicous. 



2. N. pumila, Pledw. ; branches flat ; leaves ovate or ovate- 

 oblong, often apiculate, minutely serrate above, nerveless or 

 faintly two-nerved, slightly undulated, margin recurved ; spo- 

 rangium oblongo-elliptic, exserted ; fruitstalk short ; lid equal, 

 shortly rostrate. Hook. Wils. xxii. ; Eng. Bot. t. 1443.; 

 (Plate 4, fig. 3) ; Moug. et Nest. n. 429. 



On trunks of trees, or occasionally on rocks. Not common, 

 though it occurs here and there, from Inverary to Hampshire. 

 Bearing fruit in winter. It is abundant about the Lakes of 

 Cumberland and Westmoreland, but mostly without fruit. On 

 the Continent it generally grows on the trunks of Conifers. 



Stems 12 inches long, with short, flat, spreading branches, 

 sometimes much attenuated at the tips (flagelliform) ; leaves 

 ovate or ovate-oblong, concave, with the margins recurved, 

 slightly serrate above, acuminate or suddenly apiculate, with 

 a flexuous tip, mostly nerveless, but sometimes having two 

 short divergent nerves at the base ; cells elongated ; sporangia 

 on short fruitstalks, which surmount the perichsetial leaves, 

 oblongo-elliptic, contracted above; lid about half as long, 

 acuminate ; outer teeth of peristome reddish, inner which are 

 attached to a short membrane, yellowish, filiform. 



This is a far smaller plant than N. crispa, from every 

 variety of which it is easily known by the margin of the leaves 

 being recurved, and the shorter fruitstalk. They are usually 

 far less undulated, but they vary in this respect. The species 

 occurs in North America. 



3. N. crispa, Hedw. ; stems more or less pinnate ; leaves 

 crowded, flattened, ovate-oblong, apiculate, deeply undulated 



