416 The Side-fruiting Mosses. 



■incurved feather-moss, which grows in darkish green patches 

 on walls and stones in shady situations, chiefly in limestone dis- 

 tricts. It has creeping stems, more or less pinnatified, with 

 depressed branches, which however curve upwards at the top, 

 and the leaves all bend upwards. They are ovate-lanceolate, 

 acuminate, entire, and two-nerved at the base ; the capsule is 

 shortly ovate, cernuous, rather small, with a distinct annulus, 

 and a short, acutely- conical lid. The inflorescence is monoicous, 

 and the inner peristome furnished with cilia. 



Hypnum pulchcllum, the neat mountain feather-moss, or, as 

 its distinctive scientific appellation signifies, the little beauty, 

 has also a monoicous inflorescence, and ripens its capsules in 

 June and July. It may be found on shady rocks in hilly dis- 

 tricts, and at the roots of trees by rivulets, where its tiny 

 branches, scarcely half an inch long, usually compressed, 

 crowded, fastigiate, and more or less erect, form dense green 

 glossy tufts, with leaves almost distichous, or two-ranked, but 

 rather crowded and assurgent, gradually tapering from the base 

 to an acute point ; entire and usually nerveless. The perichse- 

 tial leaves are erect ; the reddish fruit-stalk not an inch long, 

 and inserted near the base of the fertile branch among the 

 roots; its capsule oblong, curved, of a pale brown, suberect, 

 with a short, yellowish, conical pointed lid ; tapering into the 

 fruit-stalk at the base, and contracted below the mouth 

 when dry. 



Hypnum Muhlenheckii, MuhlenbecJc's Alpine feather-moss, in- 

 habits Alpine rocks, fruits in July, and grows in dense green 

 tufts, which are glossy when dry, half an inch or less in 

 height, suberect and brittle, with fasciculate drooping branches 

 a quarter of an inch long ; the leaves subcomplanate, sub cordate, 

 acuminate, evidently serrulate, of firm texture, and either 

 nerveless, or faintly two-nerved at the base. The fruit-stalk 

 is reddish, less than an inch long, and the capsule, which is at 

 first yellowish, ripens into a pale brown, is oblong in form, 

 tapering at the base, somewhat inclined, slightly curved, 

 striated when dry, and covered with a short conical lid. The 

 inflorescence is monoicous. 



In woods, on hedge-banks, and in moist rocky places, may 

 be found, die prostrate, sparmgly-branohed. stems of Hypn/wm 



ilriillriildhini, 01 the .s/ki r/i jhi I -ha rnl fea I hrr-iiioss, which fruits 



during the summer, ana has subfasciculntc branches arising 



from the base Of the Stein, whence alSO the fructification pro- 

 ceeds ; llie leaves BTS c<>iii|il:ni;ii e, glossy, of a light green, 

 obliquely orate, acuminate, two-nerved at the base, the lower 

 half of the margin recurved, sometimes serrulate at the apex; 

 the fruit-stalk is about an inch long, reddish, and the capsule, 

 more or less tinged with red, has an acutely conical, but not a 



