Mosses to be Found in May, 263 



takes its name from Dr. Muhlenberg, its first discoverer, who 

 met with it in Pennsylvania. There are three varieties of this 

 moss, having slight differences in the leaves. 



Of the Bartramiese, or apple-mosses, Bartramia pomiformis, 

 or the common apple-moss, already alluded to, and Bartramia 

 Oederi, Oeder's apple-moss, both fruit in this month. 



The generic appellation of this genus was given in honour 

 of Mr. Bartram, an American traveller and botanist ; and its 

 English name is descriptive of its sub-spherical capsule, which 

 greatly resembles a miniature apple, fresh when moist, and 

 when dry, furrowed, like a withered winter fruit. 



The apple-mosses grow upon rocks or upon the ground, in 

 perennial turfy patches, bearing terminal fructification. Some- 

 times, but rarely, they are found on the bark of trees. They 

 differ in their inflorescence, which may be synoicous, monoi- 

 cous, or dioicous, and in their peristome, which is sometimes 

 single, sometimes double, and sometimes entirely wanting ; 

 but the form of the capsule is so marked, that they can hardly 

 be mistaken for any other. The rapture which we felt, now 

 many years ago, on first meeting with some specimens of this 

 exquisite genus will, we are sure, be a life-long joy. 



B. pomiformis, or the common apple-moss, may be found on 

 dry shady banks in a sandy soil, and one variety, with longer 

 and crisped leaves and long slender branches, inhabits the 

 fissures of sub-alpine rocks. 



With densely tufted stems of a glaucous green, dichoto- 

 mously branched, and varying in length from half an inch to 

 two inches, Bartramia pomiformis has crowded leaves, more or 

 less spreading, linear-lanceolate, narrow and tapering, the 

 border tumid, with a double row of spinulose serratures ; the 

 nerve sub-excurrent, and in the dry state the leaves are some- 

 what crisped or tortuous. The barren and fertile flowers are 

 contiguous ; the fruit-stalk from half an inch to an inch long, 

 bearing the sub-globular cernuous or inclined capsule, of a 

 reddish-brown colour, and, as in all the genus, furrowed when 

 dry ; the lid is small and sub-conical ; the peristome double, the 

 inner shorter than the outer teeth, and sometimes having cilia, 

 sometimes without. - ••• i > 



Bartramia Oederi, Oeder's apple-m.oss, is also found on shady 

 rocks, but chiefly on such as are calcareous and in a moist 

 situation. It grows in soft, lax, extensive patches, of a dark 

 green colour ; its slender stems being beset with radicles, and 

 reaching a length of from one to three inches ; its leaves re- 

 curved, and spreading every way, shorter than in other British 

 species, and not sheathing nor suddenly dilated at the base, 

 lanceolote and sharply keeled, the margin recurved and serrated 

 at the apex, and the nerve sub-excurrent. In the dry state the 

 leaves are crisped. 



