464 HYPNACE^. 



slenderness but in the hardly striate, almost entire leaves ; I refer a plant gathered on 

 Snowdon with very little doubt to this variety. 



The autoicous inflorescence and the very long, straight, conspicuous perichsetia 

 are also marked and useful characters of the present plant. 



12. Hypnum vernicosum Lindb. (Amblystegium vernicosum 



Lindb. (Tab. LVII. G.). 



Slender, but rather firm and rigid, 2-4 inches high, more or 

 less erect, yellowish green, variegated with deeper colour, some- 

 times yellowish, brown, or reddish, but never deep red nor purple, 

 glossy, pinnately branched. Leaves rather small, i-i£ lines 

 long, crowded, falcate-circinate, concave, plicate, especially when 

 dry, strongly hooked at the tips of the branches, from a short, 

 wide, oblong base rapidly and rather shortly and widely 

 acuminate , acute and sometimes finely apiculate, entire ; truncate, 

 not decurrent nor excavate at base ; nerve rather weak, usually 

 vanishing just above the middle ; cells long and very narrow, 

 flexuose, sub-obtuse, the walls slightly incrassate ; at base usually 

 reddish purple, two or three rows at insertion commonly rather 

 wide, oblong-hexagonal, more or less incrassate ; not distinct nor 

 decurrent at angles, or rarely with a very few minute cells form- 

 ing almost obsolete, minute false auricles. Capsule annulate. 

 Dioicous. 



Hab. Subalpine and mountain bogs, rare. Fr. very rare, summer. 



This species in habit resembles H. Sendtneri and H. intermedium, but differs 

 from both in the strongly plicate leaves, from the former also in the shorter acumen 

 and absence of decurrent auricles. From H. revolvens proper it differs in the less 

 robust habit, paler colour, less incrassate median cells, shorter, plicate leaves, shorter 

 nerve, and usually more numerous sub-hexagonal basal cells. It is less markedly 

 different from H. revolvens sub-spec, intermedium, but the strongly plicate leaves are 

 sufficient to distinguish it, and the nerve is usually shorter. H. vernicosum is much 

 like forms of H. falcatum, but that species is less pinnate, with distinct auricles. 



It is necessary in determining species of this Section to examine leaves from the 

 stems, not the branches, and to remove them with great care, as otherwise the angular 

 decurrent cells though present may be left attached to the stem, and the leaf appear 

 falsely to be non-decurrent ; truly non-decurrent leaves are only found in the present 

 species and in H. revolvens and its sub-species. In the present plant one or two rows 

 of hyaline thin-walled cells are frequently observable below the coloured incrassate 

 cells, along the line of insertion ; these are somewhat intermediate between the foliar 

 and cortical tissue, and may almost be considered characteristic of the present species ; 

 when only a few of these are detached, at the angles, as frequently occurs, they give 

 rise to the minute false auricles mentioned in the above description. 



13. Hypnum revolvens Sw. (Amblystegium revolvens 



Lindb.) (Tab. LVII. H.). 



Robust, soft, stems irregularly divided, unequally and 

 distinctly, not pinnately branched, in dense tufts of a deep 



