300 HANDBOOK OF BRITISH MOSSES. 



Monoicous ; light-green, short or branched. Leaves some- 

 what papillose on either side ; margin reflexed ; sporangium 

 obscurely beaked ; veil conico-campanulate or cucullate ; leaf- 

 cells rather lax, subrectangular, longer at the base. Varying 

 immensely in the length of the stem, the length, direction, 

 and form of the leaves, the curvature and length of the fruit- 

 stalk, the form of the sporangium, etc. ; spores strongly echi- 

 nulate. 



2. P. bryoides, Dicks. ; simple or branched ; upper leaves 

 erecto-patent or connivent, ovato-lanceolate, concave ; margin 

 reflexed ; nerve excurrent, forming a long mucro ; sporangium 

 elliptic, exserted, obliquely apiculate. Hook, fy Wils. t. v. ; 

 Eng. Bot. t. 1180. ; (Plate 24, fig. 8) ; Moug. % Nest. n. 705. 



Open fields ; generally rare, but very common in some parts 

 of Northamptonshire in company with other Phasca. Bear- 

 ing fruit in spring. 



Monoicous; forming little green or brownish-green tufts. 

 Lid of sporangium variable in length ; leaf-cells as in the last. 



111. BBYELLA, Berk. 



Sporangium roundish, exserted ; lid distinctly defined, 

 though scarcely dehiscent, with an adnate ring of thirty-two 

 cells ; veil cucullate, scabrous above ; leaf-cells crowded above 

 and chlorophyllose. 



The definite lid and evident ring seem to require the sepa- 

 ration of this from Phascum,> if the genus is to be divided. In 

 the leaf-cells it approaches nearer to the old P. curmcollum, 

 in which however the characters of the lid are different. 



1. B. recta, Berk. Hook. % Wils. t. v. ; Eng. Bot. t. 330. ; 

 (Moug. $ Nest. n. 804.) 



Banks, fields, etc., especially near the sea, affecting more 

 southern latitudes. Bearing fruit in winter or early spring. 



