The Little-beard Mosses 



I 



B. coespitosa. 

 Tip of spore- 

 case to show 

 twisted teeth. 



The spore-cases are egg-shaped or cylindrical on long pedi- 

 cels, and have lids with either long or short beaks. The 

 peristome consists of a very 

 short membrane with sixteen 

 short, straight, imperfect teeth, 

 or of sixteen long teeth each cleft 

 to the base into two long slender 

 forks very much twisted. 



The generic name from barba, 

 a beard, refers to the long twisted 

 teeth of some species. 



There are in all three hundred 

 and ninety-four species, nineteen being found 

 in North America. 



The Claw-leaved 

 Barbula, Barbula ungui- 

 culata, Hedw. 



Habit and habitat. Com- 

 mon and variable in soft 

 bright or dirty-green tufts 

 on damp black soil, along 

 fences, on rocks, stones, etc. 

 Name. The specific 

 name unguiculata from the 

 Latin unguis, a claw, refers 

 to the sharp-pointed leaves. 

 Plant (gametophyte). 

 Variable, J to i inch high. 

 Leaves. Narrowly ob- 

 long, apex obtuse with an 

 abrupt sharp point ; vein 

 rough with tiny points and passing beyond the 

 apex ; margin rolled back from the middle down- 

 ward ; cells, the upper obscure, nearly square, 

 the basal longer, small, narrow, transparent. 

 Leaves at the base of the spore-case (perichatial 

 leaves). Transparent to near the apex. 

 Habit of flowering. Male and female flowers on separate plants 

 (dioicous) ; male plants more slender, flower-clusters terminal 

 and bud-like, bracts broadly egg-shaped. 



'73 



B. caespitosa. 

 Fertile plant. 



Barbula unguiculata. 



