300 bryace^:. 



extremely slender, with smaller, shorter, more closely imbricated 

 leaves. 



Hab. The type not found in Britain. The var. elongata on wet alpine rocks, 

 •very rare ; usually barren. Fr. autumn. 



This little moss is known by its very slender, compact stems, forming bright, 

 ■velvety-green tufts, the leaves very small, but quite Bryoid in their structure. 



73. ORTHODONTIUM Schwgr. 



Small, delicate mosses, with narrow, flexuose leaves. Capsule 

 small, erect or inclined, on a very slender seta, narrowly oblong 

 with a slender, tapering neck. Peristome double ; outer teeth 

 narrow, distant ; inner peristome a very short basal membrane 

 with 16 slender processes, without intermediate cilia. 



1. Orthodontium gracile Schwgr. (Bryum gracile Wils. ; 

 Stableria gracilis Lindb., Braithw. Br. M. Fl.) (Tab. XLI. G.). 



Stems densely tufted, slender, hardly branched, about \-\ 

 inch high, rarely taller, bright green, silky. Leaves flexuose, 

 when dry somewhat curled, very narrow, linear-setaceous, the 

 upper longest (i-ij lines) ; margin plane, entire or obsoletely 

 denticulate above, nerve vanishing at apex, narrow, rather 

 indistinct above, areolation narrowly linear. rhomboid, at base 

 wider, hexagonal-rectangular, hyaline. Seta short, less than % 

 inch high, pale, very slender; capsule suberect, narrowly 

 clavate, with a slender tapering neck, thin-walled ; lid acutely 

 pointed. Peristome teeth incurved when dry, inserted below the 

 mouth of the capsule. Paroicous ; antheridia in the axils of the 

 comal leaves. 



Hab. Sandstone rocks ; more rarely on rotten tree stumps ; rare. Fr. spring. 



A very rare and distinct species, hardly known outside Britain except in two or 

 three French localities. In habit it rather resembles the Dicranaceaa than a Bryum, 

 and may easily be taken for one of these or for Campyloslelium saxicola without a 

 reference to the microscope, when however the areolation reveals its affinities ; the 

 leaves also are much longer. It resembles Leptobryum in the leaves, but the 

 areolation is wider and looser, and the fruit much narrower and indeed altogether 

 ■different. 



74. LEPTOBRYUM Wils. 



Mosses with annual stems, not innovating above, slender. 

 Leaves very narrow, setaceous, with narrow areolation. Capsule 

 pyriform, pendulous, glossy. Peristome as in Bryum. 



