306 HANDBOOK OF BRITISH MOSSES. 



branchlets turgid, obtuse, spreading, two or three together, 

 flagelliform, pendulous and more or less adpressed to the 

 stem ; stalk-leaves lingulate, rounded at the tip ; branch- 

 leaves broadly ovate ; margin incurved above ; tip scabrous ; 

 utricles of branches lined with spiral fibres. Hook, fy Wils. t. 

 iv. ; Eng. Bot. t. 1405. ; (Plate 2, fig. 1) ; Moug. Nest. n. 113. 



Peat-mosses. Bearing fruit in summer. 



Dioicous. Stem often much elongated ; branches obtuse ; 

 leaves mostly white, sometimes reddish ; utricles of stem and 

 branches lined with spiral lines, perforated or imperforate. 



2. S. compaction, Brid. ; stems densely tufted ; branches 

 crowded, short, mostly in pairs ; leaves ovate, attenuated up- 

 wards, eroded at the tip and toothed ; utricles of stem without 

 spiral threads. Hook. $ Wils. t. Ixi. ; (Plate 22, fig. 2) ; 

 Moug. Nest. n. 805. 



Wet moors. Bearing fruit in late summer. 



Known by its densely tufted habit, short branches, longer 

 eroded leaves, and especially by the want of all trace of spiral 

 threads in the utricles of the stem. Pores of cells smaller 

 than in the last. 



3. S. molluscum, Bruch ; stem soft ; leaves roundish- 

 oval ; utricles of stem recurved above ; sporangium small, 

 thin. Hook, ty Wils. t. Ix. ; (Moug. $ Nest. n. 808.) 



Wet boggy spots. Bearing fruit in early summer. 



Forming short pale-yellow tufts. Branches mostly three to- 

 gether, spreading or deflexed ; the tips of the external utricles, 

 which are without spiral threads, free above and recurved, with 

 a terminal pore ; tip of leaves slightly eroded and toothed ; 

 sporangium small ; spores yellow. 



4. S. rubellum, Wils. ; dioicous ; branches short, attenu- 

 ated, deflexed ; leaves elliptic, obtuse ; fruitstalk short. 

 Hook. & Wils. t. Ix. 



