NECKERA. 361 



A very fine and beautiful species, acquiring a silky gloss from the regular 

 undulations of the leaves. It can hardly be confused with any other species. 

 Hylocomium rugosum inhabits similar localities and has a slight resemblance to it, but 

 the leaves are longly acuminate, more crowded and less complanate, more falcate, 

 and not regularly transversely waved. 



The var. falcata has a marked fades, but is perhaps rather a form than a 

 permanent variety, as among typical plants a stem or branch may here and there often 

 be found with the characters of the variety. 



3. Neckera pumila Hedw. (Tab. XLIX. D.). 



Slender, pinnate or bipinnate, erect or depressed, dull 

 shining green, 1-3 inches long; branches often flagelliform. 

 Leaves spreading and recurved-cultriform, variously acute and 

 acuminate, less than 1 line in length, transversely undulate when 

 dry but often very faintly so, denticulate at apex, one basal 

 margin often widely incurved, the other, or both, narrowly 

 reflexed ; nerve usually double, very faint, about j the length of 

 the leaf ; areolation as in the last but smaller. Perichaetia on the 

 under side of the stems, the bracts convolute, shorter than in the 

 last ; seta yellow, very short, (1-2 lines), often hardly exceeding 

 the perichaetial bracts ; capsule small, oval, narrow at the mouth; 

 lid conical, acutely rostellate. Dioicous. 



Var. f3. Philippeana Milde (N. Philippeana B. & S.). 

 Prostrate, usually sterile. Leaves deeply and regularly 

 undulate, abruptly ending in a long flexuose filiform point. 



Hab. Trunks of trees, rarely rocks. The var. $ rare. Fr. not common, early 

 summer. 



A somewhat variable species, recognised fiom the previous ones by its slender 

 habit and small leaves ; from the next by the undulate, more acute leaves, and shorter 

 seta ; the undulation of the leaves is often faint, but they are almost always more 

 pointed than in N'. complanata, of a duller, less yellowish colour, and with the basal 

 margin not recurved. The two species, too, usually frequent rather different trees, 

 N. complanata being often found on oak and elm, while N. pumila is rarely found on 

 these, more usually preferring smooth-barked species, such as beech and young ash. 

 The fruit is not common, but may occasionally be gathered in damp sub-alpine woods. 



The var. fi is undoubtedly but a form of this species ; it is a very beautiful plant, 

 and in its extreme form the characters are very striking ; but intermediate forms 

 frequently, indeed.commonly, occur ; I have, moreover, an exactly similar variation 

 of N. pennata, from N. America. The plant is always prostrate and creeping, and 

 almost always sterile ; I have found it in fruit in Devonshire. 



Small, slender ramuli bearing minute leaves are often produced from the upper 

 part of the stem in this species ; but the ordinary branches are rarely flagelliform as in 

 the next. 



4. Neckera complanata Hiibn. (Hypnum complanatum L.) 



(Tab. XLIX. E.). 



Resembling N. pumila, but usually in larger, denser tufts, 

 yellowish green; 2-4 inches long, somewhat regularly pinnate, 



