44 



MOSSES WITH A HAND-LENS 



D. RUFESCENS (Dicks.) Schimp. The smallest of our species, 

 less than 1-3 in. high and very slender. Plants usually simple, 

 yellowish green or reddish green, turning more strongly reddish 

 in drying; leaves small, pellucid by reason of the large thin- 

 walled cells, linear-lanceo- 

 late, gradually narrowed; 

 costa percurrent but not 

 excurrent ; margin plane, 

 denticulate above ; cap- 

 sule erect or inclined, 

 symmetric, oval, small, 

 urn about 1-32 inch long; 

 seta and capsule dark red, 

 seta tzvistcd to the left; 

 operculum short-rostrate to 

 apiculate; spores maturing 

 in summer. Not infrequent 

 on bare moist earth, espe- 

 cially on clayey soil. 



The seta of D. hetero- 

 inalla and its varieties is 

 twisted to the left and 

 sometimes becomes very 

 dark, so that forms of 

 var. Fitsgeraldii may be 

 mistaken for D. rufescens 

 unless one has specimens 

 for comparison. But ru- 

 fescens is very much 

 smaller and more slender, 

 and the leaf-cells are so 

 large and pellucid as to strike one's attention at once. 



D. VARIA (Hedw.) Schimp. is a somewhat similar species with 

 a similar habit, but rather less frequent. It is larger, bright or 

 yellowish green, not reddish, with short, usually branching stems. 

 The leaves are entire with margins narrowly rcvolute ; the cap- 

 sule is larger and curved, the seta twisted to the right; spores 

 maturing in autumn and winter. 



FIGURE 19. 



Dicranella rufescens (From Bry. Eur.) 

 i and 2. Plants natural size. 6.b. Por- 

 tion of base of leaf. 



