108 Mosses — Grimmia and Schistidium. 



But however the naked eye may be deceived, placed under 

 the microscope the fruit at once reveals the species. The 

 capsule of G. pulvinata is less round, and instead of the bright 

 red, has a dull reddish-brown colour, with rather thick and 

 opaque walls, eight ribbed when dry, a lid conical below, but 

 with a straight beak about half as long as the capsule. The 

 calyptra not dimidiate, or splitting one side, but about five- 

 lobed at the base, and the annulus broader and compound, but 

 quickly unrolled after the fall of the lid. The teeth of the 

 peristome are lanceolate, deep purplish red, more or less 

 spreading when dry, and, as in orbicularis, often cloven at the 

 apex, which circumstance at one time occasioned its being 

 confounded with the Dicranums. 



The fruit of G. pulvinata is drooping, forming as it were 

 the tasselled point of a little - hook reversed, which the seta 

 greatly resembles; or perhaps it were better to liken it to the^ 

 curve at the upper end of a shepherd's crook ; and it is 

 usually concealed by the leaves when growing ; it ripens in 

 March and April. 



A variety of this moss, termed obtusa, has been found on 

 St. Vincent rocks, near Bristol, and on Conway Castle rock, 

 having shorter stems, a shorter capsule on a shorter pedicel, 

 teeth of the peristome shorter, and a sharp conical lid, obtuse, 

 or mammillated. 



Grimmia spiralis, or the spiral-leaved Grimmia, has also 

 lanceolate leaves, tapering into long diaphanous hair-points, 

 but it cannot be confounded with either of those mentioned 

 from its slender, almost filiform stem, and its leaves being 

 spirally imbricated or contorted round the stem when in a dry 

 state. 



It grows on dry exposed Alpine rocks ; has been found on ' 

 the east side of Slemish mountain, county Antrim, Ireland; 

 on Ben Lawers, and other mountains in Breadalbano ; on the 

 Grampian mountains, and on Snowdon. Upon its native rocks 

 it forms large dense tufts, which, however, readily fall asunder 

 when torn from them ; of somewhat fragile texture, it reaches 

 from half an inch to one inch and a half' in height, the stem 

 more or less branched, and not unfrcquently proliferous, with 

 Lateral flagelliform Bhoots. The upper Leaves and the peri- 

 chetium alone" terminate in hair points; those of the stem are 

 slightly spreading, incurved above the middle, and are some- 

 what recurved in the margin; the perichaetial leaves longer, 

 broader, and concave. 



The capsule is small, of a pale, reddish brown, ovato or 



obovate in fornix and having eight furrows in the dry state; 



marked, almost Inconspicuous when growing. The lid is 



short, apiculate, scarcely rostellate ; the annulus compound, and 



