56 APLOPERISTOMI. \_Tortula. 



and with regard to the B. cestiva, Sir James Smith has well 

 observed, in the Flora JBritannica, that it is only a variety of 

 our plant, with shortly aristated, scarcely piliferous, leaves. 



We have observed an annulus in this species. 

 7. T. ruralis ; stem elongated, leaves ovato-oblong keeled patent 

 recurved the nerve ending in a long point, capsule cylindri- 

 cal erect slightly curved, lid subulate, the peristome tubular 

 as far as the middle. (TAB. XII.) 

 u. vulgaris , leaves rather acute, the hair-like point generally scabrous. 



Tortula ruralis. Swartz, Muse. Suec Turn. Muse. Hib. p. 50. 

 Smith, Fl. Brit. p. 1254. Engl JBot. p. 2070. Schwaeyr. Suppl. v. 1. 

 p. 137. t. 34. Funck, Deutschl. Moose, t. 16. n. 3. Hobson, Brit. 

 Mosses, v. 1. n. 22. Drummond, Muse. Scot. v. 2. n. 18. Hook. FL 

 Scot. P. II. p. 127. Arn. Disp. Muse. p. 38. 



Syntrichia ruralis. Brid. Meth. p. 98. Brown, in Parry's First 

 Voyage, App. p. cxcviii. Schultz, in Nov. Act. Acad. CCES. v. II. p. 

 229. t. 34. / 3. 



S. norvegica. Web. et Mohr, in Arch. Nat. t. 5. f. 1. 



Barbula ruralis. Hedw. Sp. Muse. p. 121. Moug. et Nestl. n. 26. 



Bryum rurale. Linn. Sp. PI Dill. Muse. t. 45. / 12. 



HAB. Roofs of houses, especially such as are thatched with 



straw ; on walls and on the ground, rarely on trees. 

 The var. (3. has not, that we are aware, been found in Bri- 

 tain. It is thus characterized by Greville and Hooker, in their 

 Memoir on the genus, "foliis vbtusioribus medium versus con- 

 tractis, pilo plerumque Icevi /" and is the Syntrichia Icevipila of 

 JBridel and Schwaegrichen. 



The species may be reckoned among the largest of the genus. 

 We found specimens upon Craigalleach, in Breadalbane, which 

 have measured seven or eight inches in length. These, how- 

 ever, are always barren. The leaves vary somewhat in shape. 



Our friend, Mr. Lyell, has found a state of this plant, also 

 without fructification, growing on the trunks of trees at Rum- 

 say, Hants, in which the nerves were gemmiferous ; the gemmae 

 clothing the upper side of the nerve, near the middle of the 

 leaf, of a roundish or oblong form, green, reticulated. The 

 nerve is by no means so dilated as in the gemmiferous plants of 

 Gymnostomum ovatum. 



