40 



MOSSES WITH A HAND-LENS 



Fig. 32. Hypnum Schreberi x ^. 



SCHREBER'S HYPNUM 



Schreber's Hypnum (//. Schreberi Willd.) is the bright 

 yellow-green moss that forms dense deep cushions by almost 

 every moist shaded roadside in inland country regions. It is 

 abundant in moist pastures and open woods, and sometimes 

 makes its most luxuriant growth in a sphagnum bog. It is so 

 common, so conspicuous, and withal so large, that every one 

 must have noticed it at some time or other. The stems are often 

 four to six inches long and nearly erect, and crowded so closely 

 together as to form dense soft cushions into which the foot sinks 

 deeply. Examined closely, the stems appear a bright red through 

 the semi-transparent leaves. 



The cut of this moss is the only attempt in the book to illus- 

 trate by means of photography. The results did not warrant a 

 farther trial. Mosses are too dark and too small to photograph 

 successfully. 



Schreber's Moss has broad obtuse leaves and is put by some 

 botanists in a subgenus of Hypnum, by others in Hylocomium. 

 The capsules mature in autumn; they are not so frequent as one 

 would expect from the abundance of the gametophyte. 



