60 HANDBOOK OF MOSSES. 



Amphoridium lapponicum may be found growing in the 

 crevices of rocks near the summits of high mountains in 

 Scotland and Wales, in loose dark-green tufts, about an inch 

 high. The leaves are crowded, narrowly lance-shaped ; 

 nerve pellucid; fruit-stalk terminal, very short; capsule erect, 

 dark brown, with eight furrows ; lid shortly beaked. Fruiting 

 in June or July. 



Conostomum boreale has only been met with on Scotch 

 mountains near the summits. The stems are about two 

 inches high, and form dense green, level-topped, rigid tufts ; 

 leaves imbricated, pointed ; fruit-stalk terminal, about one 

 inch long ; capsule slightly bending to one side and furrowed 

 when ripe; lid conical curved ; peristome red. Fruiting in 

 July and August. 



Splachnum vasculosum is one of the prizes that reward 

 the daring Alpine climber, and must be looked for about 

 the springs and streams of Scotch mountains, such as 

 Ben Lawers. Stems unbranched and forming dense tufts; 

 leaves large, pale, dusky green, roundish egg-shaped, con- 

 cave, with a short nerve ; leaf-cells large and transparent ; 

 capsule erect, cylindrical, with a large globular purple swell- 

 ing at the base (apophysis\ which is smooth when freshly 

 gathered, but becomes corrugated when old or dry. Fruit- 

 ing in summer. 



Dissodon splachnoides is another of these prizes found in 

 wet, turfy bogs on some of the Breadalbane range, growing 

 in dense, blackish-green tufts. The stems are about an 

 inch high ; the leaves dark green, tongue-shaped, blunt, with 

 a short nerve and large leaf-cells ; capsules nearly erect, 

 roundish egg-shaped, olive brown, with an apophysis more 

 or less tapering into the fruit-stalk ; lid convex, with a short 

 point ; peristome of sixteen short teeth. Fruiting about July. 



The foregoing notes on moss habitats are, I am convinced, 

 full of faults ; they have, however, been given in the hope 

 of calling the attention of some of the students of Nature 

 to a vast and very beautiful family of plants, and, if they 

 should induce any one to give some of his spare moments 

 to this study, they will have served the purpose for which 

 they were written. 



