The Side-fruiting Mosses. 417 



beaked lid ; the outer teeth are reddish brown, and the in- 

 florescence is monoicous. 



On Ben Lawers, the favourite haunt of some of our rarer 

 mosses, may be found fruiting in August, the rare species, 

 Hypnum Halleri, Hatter's feather-moss. It, too, has a creeping 

 stem and monoicous inflorescence, but grows in dense brownish 

 patches, with short erect branches, crowded towards the in- 

 terior of the tuft, the leaves crowded and much recurved, 

 roundish ovate, shortly acuminate, minutely denticulated, 

 slightly reflexed at or near the basal margin, sometimes nerve- 

 less, sometimes two-nerved at the base, the areolae oblong and 

 uniform, somewhat larger than in H. polymorphism, which this 

 species resembles in size. The fruit-stalk is above half an inch 

 in length, with erect perichsetial leaves and a curved cernuous 

 capsule, covered by a yellow, bluntish conical lid. 



Hypnum polymorphum, or the dwarf starry feather-moss, is 

 one of the smaller kinds not generally distributed, but forming 

 the minute adornment of walls, rocks, and banks in limestone 

 districts. It was found near Edinburgh, by Dr. Greville ; on 

 declivities near the Menai quarries, by Mr. Wilson ; on lime- 

 stone rocks, near Castle Howard, in Yorkshire, and on the 

 ruins of Kirkham Abbey, by Mr. Spruce ; and we have repeat- 

 edly met with it, richly fruited, in various localities in Glouces- 

 tershire. It ripens its capsules in May and early in June, but 

 we mention it here because, as far as we know, Gloucestershire 

 has not yet been named as possessing it, though it grows, 

 freely fruiting, in two or three places on the Cleeve Hill, about 

 three or four miles from Cheltenham, and also in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Minchinhampton, beyond Stroud. 



It has a procumbent stem, with simple slender erect 

 branches, with rather crowded spreading leaves, somewhat 

 squarrose, but secund, cordate, or ovate-lanceolate; in some of 

 the leaves rather suddenly, and in all much acuminated, entire 

 and nerveless. The capsule is oblong, curved and cernuous, 

 with a conical lid, and the inflorescence is monoicous. 



Hypnum plicatum, or the plaited feather-moss, too, we met 

 with on the 28rd of April, this year, on the side of a stone wall, 

 and near its base, at the summit of Leckhampton Hill, overlook- 

 ing the valley of the Severn. There was a quantity of the moss, 

 but only one solitary capsule, and that over-ripe, so that it had 

 lost both calyptra and lid. It has procumbent, irregularly 

 branching stems, the branches incurved, elongated, and 

 ascending; the stem tomentose, with short branched leafy 

 processes ; the leaves imbricated, almost appressed in the dry 

 state, yellowish, rather glossy, ovate, much acuminated, or 

 tapering, more or less secund, and plicate, with narrow elon- 

 gated areolae; the perichaetial leaves are pale and glossy, 



