154 HANDBOOK OF BRITISH MOSSES. 



roundish, slightly papillose at the back; margin reflected 

 below, entire; fruitstalk 4 an inch long; sporangium sub- 

 Cylindrical ; lid conical, more or less acute ; outer teeth in- 

 curved when dry, so as to assume the form of a staple ; inner 

 peristome with intermediate cilia. 



A variety grows in very moist shady places with lax, dis- 

 tant, widely-spreading, dull-green leaves and a more elongated 

 sporangium, which was formerly esteemed a good species, but 

 Schimper now follows Wilson in not considering it distinct. 



30. LEPTODON, Brid. 



Sporangium symmetrical ; outer peristome of sixteen teeth, 

 inner a short jagged membrane ; leaf-cells round ; veil hairy, 

 cuculliform ; branches pinnate or bipinnate. 



1. L. Smithii, Brid.; stems creeping; branches pinnate 

 and bipinnate ; branchlets elongated, strongly incurved when 

 dry; leaves roundish, very obtuse, entire ; margin recurved 

 below; nerve reaching above the middle; fruitstalk short; 

 lid rostrate. Hook, fy Wils. t. xiv. ; Eng. Bot. 1. 1326. ; (Plate 

 13, fig. 5.) 



On trunks of trees in the south of England. Bearing fruit 

 in spring. 



Dioicous. Stem or rhizoma creeping ; branches crowded, 

 pinnate or bipinnate, strongly or even spirally incurved when 

 dry; branchlets often elongated, flagelliform; leaves mostly 

 deep- green, broadly elliptic, very obtuse, entire ; nerve reach- 

 ing beyond the middle; leaf- cells nearly orbicular, arranged 

 in longitudinal or transverse lines ; leaves of the flagelliform 

 shoots minute, nerveless ; perichsetial leaves almost as long as 

 the fruitstalk ; vaginula hairy ; sporangium elliptic ; teeth of 

 the peristome pale ; lid obliquely rostrate ; veil hairy ; spores 

 rather large, greenish. 



