200 HISTORY OF BRITISH MOSSES. 



geners, it seems to court the society of man, growing and 

 fruiting often very luxuriantly in the shady precincts of a 

 garden or shrubbery. 



26. Bkyum PUNCTA.TUM, Schreb. [Dotted Thyme Thread 

 Moss.) Stems elongated; leaves obovato-rotundate, very 

 obtuse, reticulated, their margins thickened, entire, the 

 nerve disappearing below the summit; capsule ovate, pen- 

 dulous; lid shortly rostrate. — Eng. Fl. p. 63. Mnium 

 punctatum. Mull. Syn. pt. l.p. 155. 



By the rocky margin of streams, seeming to prefer grow- 

 ing near 'the roots of Alders and other trees affecting a 

 moist soil. Fr. Spring. A large-leaved and elegant species, 

 generally distributed in such localities as we have noted 

 above. The foliage varies much, the depth of its green 

 being, when growing on stones near the borders of springs, 

 of a pale shade, while those plants growing on earth, or 

 more in the shade, are of a dingy hue. The leaves also of 

 the variety aquaticum of Hooker, are larger and more suc- 

 culent, with the margins scarcely thickened. 



A Moss, by some described as a species, and by others 

 as only a variety of the above, and found both in- Canada 

 and on the European continent, has also been found in Lan- 

 cashire by Messrs. Wilson and Nowell. This is the Mnium 



