MOSSES WITH A HAND-LENS 



125 



dry. The plants are usually slender and creeping; the 

 leaves are costate and of the shape shown in the figure. The 

 capsules are not wrinkled and mature in late June. 



PLAGIOTHECIUM STRIATELLUM (Brid.) Lindb., the Ribbed 

 Hypnum, is another moss common in swamps and damp places, 

 especially at the roots of trees and on peaty hummocks. The 

 leaves are spreading as in the preceding, but the plants are much 

 less creeping, the costa is absent, the capsule is plainly wrinkled 

 when dry much as in Hypnum curvifoUum (See Fig. 54), and at 

 the basal angles are a number of inflated hyaline cells as shown 

 in the plate. The spores mature in early May in the vicinity of 

 New York City, where both this and the preceding species are 

 common. The wrinkled capsules, spreading ecostate leaves, and 

 early season of maturing spores make this an easy species to 

 identify. 



The Hooked Mosses* 



Growing on stones, earth, and decayed wood in shaded 

 swamps, edges of brooks, and shores of lakes and streams, will be 

 found another type of Hypnum with strongly secund and hooked 

 leaves. These mosses belong to the sub-genus Harpidium. As a 



FIGURE 59. Hypnum uncinatum X i; capsules X 10. 



