208 The Extinguisher Mosses. 



early stage, is easily seen through the semi-transparent, greenish 

 calyptra, which is papillose at the apex, and said to be entire at 

 the base, though usually more or less torn in its separation from 

 the vaginula, but it is never fringed as in Encalypta ciliata ; 

 .".nd is entire in the sense of beiug of one piece, self composed, 

 as well as in the botanical sense of being without teeth or 

 notches in the margin; it resembles a little fairy extinguisher 

 placed over a miniature wax-taper, as much as to say, " You 

 must not be lighted till the boisterous winds of March, 

 and the tearful days of April, give place to serener skies and a 

 dryer atmosphere;" but during these months, March and 

 April, the fruit is ripening, and towards the end of April or 

 early in May, extinguisher and lid, which have been such close 

 friends during all the rough weather, fall off together, and give 

 the now matured spores, which are rather large for the size of 

 the moss, leave to escape and develop the functions of vitality 

 that lurk within them. The peristome is frequently absent, 

 and at all times is extremely fugacious and fragile ; when per- 

 fect, it consists of sixteen teeth, pale and sub-erect, seldom 

 rising much above the orifice of the capsule. 



There arc several varieties, slightly differing from each 

 other, one differing only in an elongated stem and larger 

 leaves, another in having the leaves piliferous, another in 

 having an oblique capsule, but all so nearly resembling the 

 normal form, as to be easily recognized for Encalypta vulgaris. 

 From the same patch, a few yards in extent, and growing on a 

 stone wall on the Cotteswold range of hills, we have gathered 

 some specimens with a full mouth of sixteen teeth, others with 

 one, two, or three only, and others again quite destitute of 

 peristome. 



The calyptra attains its full size before its separation from 

 the vaginula, and even before the fruit becomes appreciable at 

 the summit of the fruit-stalk, which is coiled up within the 

 calyptra in this early stage, and it is interesting to witness its 

 development. At first the base of the calyptra is turned up 

 inwardly upon a little mass of spongy tissue, which crowns the 

 depressed conical summit of the vaginula, and when torn away 

 by advancing growth, it is found too firmly adherent fco come 

 clean off, so that it leavesa circular fragment from its hast , like 



a little coronet, to crown ihe vaginula. The reddish fruit-stalk, 

 which is ahout half an inch long, twist s towards the right. 



in liJnrah/pf a ciliata, or fche fringed extinguisher moss, the 



fruit-stalk t wists towards the left, the vaginula. is sub- cylindri- 

 cal, and fche pale yellowish, smooth calyptra is distinctly 

 fringed at the liase, the fringe being derived from the spongy 

 COnical mass of cellular tissue which surmounts the vaginula., 

 and, therefore, being oflaxer texture, and paler than the calyptra 



