CAMPTOTHECIUM. 397 



Although much resembling Phuropus sericeus in structural detail, the habit of 

 this moss is so different that there is little difficulty in distinguishing it. The habitat 

 is not the same, the present plant never growing on trees, and rarely on bare rocks 

 or stones. The stems are very rarely creeping, usually more or less erect, so that the 

 plant has a very different aspect ; the branches are usually more robust, straighter, 

 less terete when dry on account of the less appressed position of the leaves ; and the 

 leaves themselves are distinctly larger, being both longer and broader. It is quite 

 distinct from C. nitens in the habitat, the colour, the absence of radicles, the rough 

 seta, etc. ; the absence of paraphyllia, narrower leaves and narrow basal areolation will 

 also separate it from Brachythecium plicatum and B. glareosum. I have indeed found 

 it with exactly the habit of the latter plant, and only separable under the microscope. 



2. Camptothecium nitens Schp. {Hypnum nitens Schreb. ; 

 H. trichoides Neck.) (Tab. LII. E.). 



Stems scattered among other mosses, or tufted, erect, tall, 

 2-5 inches high, thickly coated with brown tomenhtm, 2-4 times 

 divided, with numerous spreading or ascending, somewhat 

 pinnately or irregularly arranged branches ; soft, bright shining 

 green or often golden brown or reddish, when dry with a glossy, 

 almost metallic sheen. Leaves very long, ij- if lines, elongate- 

 lanceolate, finely acuminate, narrowed from the base or a little 

 above, deeply plicate ; margin very narrowly revolute, entire or 

 faintly sinuose ; nerve very thin, reaching f the length of- the 

 leaf ; cells narrowly linear-vermicular, obtuse, incrassate, a few 

 at extreme base shorter, very incrassate, with the walls strongly 

 porose, at angles short, slightly wider, but hardly distinct, and 

 not forming defined auricles. Perichsetial leaves entire. Seta 

 smooth. Capsule inclined, oblong-cylindric, gibbous at back and 

 arcuate, reddish brown. 



Hab. Bogs and marshes, chiefly in subalpine regions, rare. Fruit very rare,, 

 summer. 



A very beautiful species, easily known by the erect, almost dendroid stems, the 

 shining texture, numerous radicles, etc. The absence of distinct angular cells also is 

 an important character. The purple radicles which clothe the stems and even the 

 branches frequently spring from the leaves themselves at the back of the nerve. 



This moss, in common with some other more or less aquatic species has without 

 doubt been much more abundant in this country in prehistoric but postglacial times, 

 when the climate was colder and the surface of the land much less drained than at the 

 present day. 



1 10. BRACHYTHECIUM B. & S. 



Primary stems not stoloniform, more or less prostrate, 

 somewhat divided, with irregular, hardly pinnate branches. 

 Leaves inrbriSated and straight or sub-secund, rarely falcato- 

 secund, single-nerved more than half-way, more or less widely 



