338 BRYACEiE. 



apex, nerve thick, vanishing below or reaching apex, rarely 

 slightly excurrent, purple, cells narrowly linear-rhomboid, 

 usually, in the older leaves especially, very narrowly linear and 

 incrassate, narrower still towards margin but not forming a 

 distinct border. Seta flexuose, about 1 inch high, capsule 

 variable, 1-1^ lines long, pendulous or inclined, deep red, 

 pyriform, with a tapering neck, small-mouthed, persistent ; lid 

 glossy, mamillate. Peristome reddish. Dioicous. 



Var. f3. viride Husnot. More slender, leaves less closely 

 imbricated, pale green or very slightly tinged with red, more 

 acute ; cells a little wider, less incrassate. 



Var. y. distant! folium Dixon n. var. Tall, robust, green 

 above, pale reddish brown below. Leaves large, long, distant, 

 divergent , tapering, rather more loosely areolate. 



Hab. Wet alpine and sub-alpine rocks ; rarely on less elevated heaths ; common 

 except in the lowlands. The var. $ at low altitudes, not common. The var. y on 

 stones in a mountain stream, Honister Pass, Cumberland (Dixon, iSpj). Fr. rather 

 rare, summer. 



One of the most beautiful of our mosses, with * splendid almost metallic lustre 

 and rich colouring. The var. meridionale Schp. is only a rather narrow-leaved, 

 narrowly areolate southern form. The var. viride is in its extreme form a very 

 distinct and different looking plant, resembling B. Mildeanum very closely ; inter- 

 mediate forms between it and the type may however often be found. B. alpinum is 

 the type of another well defined group, including also B. gemmiparum, B. Miiklen- 

 beckii and B. Mildeanum, known by their deep red capsules, the leaves erect and 

 imbricated when dry and little altered, more or less oval-oblong, obtuse or slightly 

 acute, hardly acuminate, with the nerve vanishing or at most shortly mucronate, and 

 the cells frequently very narrow. It can hardly be confused with any species except 

 the ones in question ; of these B. Muhlenbeckii differs in the obtuse, cucullate, widely 

 areolate leaves, B. gemmiparum in the shorter stems, wider, less pointed, less rigid 

 leaves with rather wider cells, and B. Mildeanum, as pointed out under that species, 

 in the more excurrent nerve, wider cells and other points. 



The plant described above under the name of var. distantifolium is a marked 

 form, well deserving of notice ; the leaves are much more distant than in any form I 

 have seen of this species, not imbricated, spreading or divergent, longer and larger 

 than in the type, and of the same colour as in the var. viride. 



28. Bryum gemmiparum De Not. (Tab. XLV. J.). 



Resembling B. alpinum, but paler, in shorter, stunted tufts; 

 the young shoots bright green, the older reddish. Leaves wider, 

 ovate, shortly and widely, almost obtusely pointed, nerve 

 vanishing below apex or just reaching it; cells wider, narrowly 

 hexagonal-rhomboid, thin-walled, narrower at margin, which is 

 slightly refiexed below ; nerve thinner. Gemmse frequently occur 

 among the upper leaves. Capsule oblong-pyriform, reddish. 

 Dioicous. 



