Mosses — Grimmia and Schistidium. 109 



dehiscing in fragments; the teeth of the peristome rather 

 long, of a purplish red, bifid and recurved when dry; the 

 calyptra conico-mitriform and five-lobed at the base. The 

 moss is, however, much offcener found without than with the 

 fruit. 



Grimmia torta, or the tivisted-leaved Grimmia, seems like 

 an exaggeration of G. spiralis, which it greatly resembles in 

 its mode of growth ; but it is a more robust species, its inco- 

 herent tufts, of a rich olive brown, rising to the height of 

 from one to two inches. The leaves are more contorted when 

 dry, and when they have diaphanous hair-points — a circum- 

 stance of only rare occurrence — those points, instead of being 

 long, are very short; the leaves are also acutely carinate, and 

 channelled along the nerve, so as to be almost conduplicate. 

 No fruit has as yet been met with, nor any flowers observed, 

 though the plant itself is plentiful on rocks in England, Scot- 

 land, Ireland, and Wales ; but among the leaves near the top of 

 the stem, and sometimes adhering to the back of a leaf, are 

 frequently found jointed thread-like filaments, whose precise 

 office is not yet fully ascertained. 



Grimmia tricliophylla, or the Hair -'pointed Grimmia, was 

 discovered by Dr. Grreville on stone walls near Edinburgh. It 

 has since been found not unfrequent in similar situations 

 throughout Britain; and Dr. Taylor met with it in Ireland; 

 but it does not commonly occur in fruit. It grows in soft, lax, 

 yellowish green patches, with stems of from a quarter of an 

 inch to an inch long, rooting only at the base, and with leaves 

 spreading from an erect base, flexuose, and incurved towards 

 the apex, slightly crisped when dry, and with the margin 

 nearly plane above, but recurved below. The fruit-stalk is 

 yellowish, longer than the perichsetial leaves, but curved, as in 

 G. pulvinata, while growing; when dry, flexuose and nearly 

 erect. The beautiful little capsule is elliptical or ovate-oblong 

 in form, its walls rather thin, furrowed or angular when dry, 

 and of a pale brown ; the lid has a rather long, straight beak. 

 The annulus is large and dehiscent, the calyptra conico- 

 mitriform and lobed at the base, while the teeth of the peristome 

 are densely barred, sometimes entire, sometimes bifid. The laxity 

 of its tufts, and the gradually tapering leaves, sufficiently dis- 

 tinguish it from G. pulvinata, even when not in fruit, the leaves 

 of the latter being suddenly and abruptly contracted into hair- 

 points. The inflorescence, too, is dioicous, while in pulvmata 

 it is monoicous. 



Another Grimmia with curved seta, growing on subalpmo 

 rocks in Scotland, Wales, and Cornwall, but of less frequent 

 occurrence, is Grimmia Shultzii, Shultz's Grimuiia. It is a 

 more robust species than the last, has more crowded leaves, 



