EURHYNCHIUM. 417 



Stems more robust, more densely and regularly pinnate and 

 bipinnate , deep green ; stem-leaves more crowded ; branch- 

 leaves wider at the base, but longly acuminate. 



Hab. Hedgerows, grassy places, stumps of trees, etc., most abundant on clayey 

 soil ; very common. The var. 18 less common, most frequent in mountainous woods. 

 Fr. winter. 



There has been and apparently still exists considerable confusion as to this and 

 the following species, partly arising from a doubt as to the original plant intended by 

 Linnaeus, partly from divergent views as to the value and affinities of the different 

 forms. Continental botanists usually make separate species of E. prcelongum and E. 

 Stokesii, uniting E. Swartzii with the former as a variety, usually under the name var. 

 atrovirens Schp. This view appears to me to be highly inconsistent with the actual 

 values of the plants, and to attribute the greater weight to what are by far the least 

 important characters. It appears probable that the plant described below as E. 

 Swartzii ( H. prcelongum var. atrovirens of most European works) is imperfectly 

 known on the continent, and is usually confused in part at least, with E. 

 pralongum. Wilson (Bry. Brit. ) gives a very clear account of the difference between 

 these plants, and the view there taken is entirely in harmony with my own observa- 

 tions on a large number of British specimens. 



E. pralongum and its var. Stokesii differ from E. Swartzii in the more elongated 

 habit, the more regularly pinnate stems with very slender and usually attenuated 

 branches ; the plants usually of a brighter green, not yellowish, the leaves of softer 

 texture and hardly glossy when dry ; and especially in the wide difference between 

 the stem and branch-leaves ; the former being widely-cordate, often distinctly 

 triangular, with long and narrow, squarrose acumen, those of the branches much 

 narrower, often quite narrowly lanceolate, much smaller, very acute, not complanate, 

 rendered more appressed and imbricate, and often somewhat twisted, in drying. In 

 E. Swartzii (the type as described below) the stems are usually less elongated, hardly 

 or very indistinctly pinnate, the colour almost always pale yellowish, rarely dark green, 

 the branches (with the leaves) stouter and more obtuse, the leaves very frequently sub- 

 complanate, the leaves of stems and branches much more alike, those of the stem 

 being widely ovate but not triangular and hardly cordate, less strongly decurrent, more 

 shortly and gradually acuminate or only acute ; branch-leaves sub-similar, much larger 

 and wider than in E. pralongum, widely ovate, shortly and broadly pointed, the 

 cells shorter and wider. On the other hand the var. Stokesii is almost identical with 

 E. prcelongum in the leaf form, arrangement and areolation, the branch-leaves being 

 wider at the base than is usual in the type, but otherwise similar ; the stem-leaves are 

 very strongly decurrent, and the paraphyllia are usually present and numerous, but 

 both these character* are found strongly pronounced, occasionally, in the ordinary 

 form of £. prcelongum ; and practically the only difference lies in the more dense and 

 regular pinnate or bipinnate branching, giving the plant a firmer, less straggling 

 appearance. Intermediate forms occur frequently, very difficult to determine, and 

 though this may doubtless be sometimes the case between the present species and the 

 following, such forms are, in Britain at least, far more rare ; indeed I have found E. 

 Swartzii in innumerable localities, almost always with its characteristic habit, and 

 rarely presenting any approach to E. pralongum. 



The squarrose stem-leaves of peculiar form, taken in conjunction with the narrow 

 branch-leaves and the general habit of the plant make E. pralongum usually an easy 

 plant to recognise, though somewhat liable to variation. In some of its forms it looks 

 much like Amblystegium filicinum, but the similarity disappears on a nearer view. 



6. Eurhynchium Swartzii Hobkirk. (Hypnum Swartzii 



Turn. ; Eurhynchium prselongum var. atrovirens Schp., Syn.) 



(Tab. LIV. B.). 



In pale yellowish tufts, sometimes dark green ; stems 



prostrate, with irregularly or indistinctly pinnate branches, 



Bl 



