34 



HANDBOOK OF MOSSES. 



grows in dense cushions, very similar to the familiar G. 

 pulvinata (fig. 19, i), from which however it may be 

 known by the convex lid that of G. pulvinata being 

 beaked, and by the calyptra being split on one side, and 

 not five-lobed as in the latter species, and by its fruit being 

 ripened about a month earlier than in the latter species. 

 Ditrichum flexicauk occurs in loose, glossy, yellowish-green 



tufts, one or two inches high. 

 The leaves are spreading, 

 lance-shaped, and narrowed 

 into a longish, awl-shaped 

 point. Under the microscope 

 the nerve will be seen to form 

 all the upper portion of the 

 leaf. The stems are somewhat 

 matted together by root-like 

 processes. This moss is 

 always barren in British dis- 

 tricts. Pottia lanceolata, which 

 grows in large patches, will be 

 frequent in such soils. The 

 stems vary in length from half 

 to one inch high, the leaves 

 are lance-shaped, terminated 

 by a hair-like point, fruit-stalk 

 terminal, capsule egg-shaped, 

 brown and smooth, peri- 

 stome single, of sixteen teeth. 

 Mnium stellare occurs both in 

 calcareous and marly soils, on 

 shady banks, growing in dense" 

 tufts of full green or bluish 

 green colour. The leaves are 



oval, lance-shaped, without the thickened border usual in 

 these species. The leaf-cells are dense and roundish, and 

 the leaf-margin is serrated. This species has not yet been 

 found in fruit in Great Britain. Trichostomun tophaccum 

 is a native of moist, dripping banks in calcareous and marly 

 soils, growing in densely tufted masses, often matted together 



FIG. 19. Griinmia pul'vinata. 



i, plant natural size. 2, fruit 

 enlarged ; a, conico-rostrate lid; b, 

 capsule ; c, curved seta. 3, leaf 

 enlarged to show hair-like prolonga- 

 tion of nerve ; b, areolation. 4, 

 Gritnmia orbicularis, to show con- 

 vex lid a. 



