4i8 hypnace^:. 



which are usually spreading and somewhat distant, not erect and 

 crowded in the type, obtuse, short, nearly straight. Stem-leaves 

 ■widely ovate, slightly decurrent, gradually shortly or longly 

 acuminate, squarrose ; branch-leaves sub-similar, but never longly 

 acuminate, usually shortly acute or even bluntly pointed, widely 

 ovate, all somewhat distant, spreading, usually sub-complanate, 

 hardly altered in form or direction when dry, glossy, sub- 

 scariose, not or scarcely striate ; nerve rather thick, reaching to 

 | of the leaf, usually ceasing abruptly and often projecting in a 

 minute point at the back ; cells short, 6-10 times as long as wide, 

 obtusely linear, at apex much shorter and wider, elliptic- 

 rhomboid, at basal angles wide, rectangular. Seta and capsule 

 shorter than in the last. Dioicous. 



Hab. In similar localities with the last, but usually in more open situations, most 

 frequent in calcareous districts. Fr. very rare, winter. 



The differences between this and the last species are pointed out under that 

 plant ; to this it may be added that the fruit appears to be much rarer in the present 

 species than in that. 



The name atrovirens applied by Swartz to this species is somewhat inappropriate, 

 and has perhaps led to misconception ; Wilson indeed, who certainly understood it, 

 speaks of the deep green colour, but I cannot but think this is exceptional ; I have 

 gathered the moss in a very large number of localities, and only rarely have found it 

 of a deep green ; it is almost always more or less yellow. 



E. hians Lesq. and James ( Hypntwi hians Hedw. ) is reported from Sussex as 

 collected by Mitten, and I have also seen other specimens from that county so 

 named by the same acute bryologist ; these I should, however, unhesitatingly refer to 

 E. Swartzii, and, according to Hobkirk (Synopsis, Ed. 2, p. 205), Fergusson came to 

 the same conclusion with regard to the original Sussex specimens. E. hians is 

 supposed to be a N. American species, and although I have too slight material upon 

 which to venture a decided opinion, I have very little doubt that the plant so called is 

 identical with our E. Swartzii. I have, unfortunately, only a fragment of an 

 authentic American specimen of " H. hians Hedw." gathered by Lesquereux, and 

 without fruit ; but so far as it goes it is exactly the same plant as the present species ; 

 moreover the description of H. hians in Lesq. and James (Mosses of North America) 

 agrees with E. Swartzii practically in every respect (allowance being made for a very 

 slight variation in the serration of the leaves, which are there described as serrulate 

 only above, which is often, though not always the case in E. Swartzii). That the 

 authors of that work did not understand our European plants of the present group is 

 abundantly clear from the description of H. prmlongum, which is described as almost 

 like H. pilifetum, but referred to later as hardly separable from H. hians. A 

 comparison of good N. American specimens of E. hians with our E. Swartzii would 

 clear up the difficulty, and, I have very little doubt, would reveal their identity ; this 

 would explain Mitten's naming of our plants as H. hians, doubtless by comparison with 

 American specimens. 



E. hians is also recorded from Cornwall, I believe on the authority of the 

 late W. Curnow, but specimens which I gathered under his guidance proved to be 

 only E. Swartzii. I have seen other specimens so-named, from other localities, all of 

 which I should refer to the present species. One of these, a fruiting plant gathered 

 by the Rev. C. H. Binstead in Herefordshire and named E. hians by Braithwaite, 

 has the capsules smaller and more slender than is usual in E. Swartzii ; but the 

 difference is no greater than I have often seen between different specimens of, e.g. , E. 

 pralongum ; nor am I aware that this has been described as a character of E. hians ; 

 the stem-leaves also are more longly acuminate than is usual, but not more so than I 



