108 MOSSES WITH A HAND-LENS 



sometimes having leaves half an inch long. The leaf cells are 

 so large as easily to be seen with a lens and in some cases with 

 the naked eye of a trained observer. 



The two species without borders to the leaves are rather 

 infrequent and so different as to remove all danger of confusion. 



M. CINCUDIOIDES (Blytt.) Hueben. is a very large moss four 

 to six inches high, said to have been found a foot long, and 

 looking almost exactly like an overgrown Large-leaved Mnium. 

 The leaves are larger and oblong and when mounted show no 

 trace of a border. This is a rare species of cool bogs. 



M. STELLARE Reich, is a small moss usually less than an inch 

 high, though sometimes becoming more than two inches in length. 

 It grows in rather dense cushions at the base of trees in swampy 

 woods. Although frequent it rarely fruits. The leaves are 

 elliptic-oblong with no trace of margin and teeth too fine to be 

 seen with a lens ; the costa ends farther below the apex than in 

 any other species included here. 



Pleurocarpous Mosses* 



The remainder of the mosses have creeping stems, seta aris- 

 ing from short lateral branchlets and peristome double. 



FAMILY 8* LESKEACEAE. The Leskea Family. 



LL the members of this family except Thuidium have 

 erect capsules. The leaf cells are so strongly covered 

 with little projections as to make them less trans- 

 parent than in most other pleurocarpous mosses. The 

 Twisted Mosses, it will be remembered, had leaves 

 that were subopaque for the same reason. 



ANOMODON. 



The bases of trees in cool moist woods frequently wear an 

 apron of dark green, extending from the roots to three or 

 four feet above the ground and often entirely encircling the 

 trunk. This " apron " is usually composed of one or more species 

 of Anomodon, often mixed with an Hepatic (Porella). The 

 mats of Anomodon are quite thick and are composed of a net- 

 work of nearly leafless stems growing close to the bark and 



