158 The Thread-Mosses. 



Bryum ccesjpiticium, or tlie lesser matted thread-moss, is 

 of very frequent occurrence, having no particular local 

 predilections, but growing sometimes on the ground, and 

 as often climbing walls and rocks, or seating itself upon 

 the roofs of houses, where it grows in tufts more or less 

 compact of a yellowish or intense green, the stems being 

 from two lines to an inch in length, having innovations and 

 also sterile branches, slender and attenuated, not much unlike 

 those of B. julaceum. As in B. Gapillare the terminal leaves 

 are larger than the rest, but all of them are erect and straight 

 when dry, therefore the two species can never be confounded. 

 The capsule too is paler and smaller than that of B. 

 Gapillare, with a paler peristome, and a yellow not red lid, 

 and also enclosing yellow, not green spores. Nor are the 

 leaves so suddenly and roundly terminated ; but while the 

 nerve is more or less excurrent the laminar portion of the leaf 

 more gradually tapers to it, being lanceolate acuminate at the 

 point and ovate at the base, the margin recurved, and the 

 apex either entire or serrulate. The inflorescence is dioicous, 

 and the oblong- obovate or ovate capsule slightly constricted 

 below the mouth when dry. There are several varieties of 

 this moss, with slight differences. B. ccesjpiticium. ripens its 

 fruits in May and June, as does also the still more common 

 species — 



Bryum Gapillare, or the greater matted thread-moss, the 

 frequent ornament of our walls, rocks, trunks of trees, etc., 

 where its beautiful little pendant capsules, of a reddish-brown 

 colour, with red, shining, apiculate lids, are calculated to attract 

 the eye even of the careless. It is one of our most common 

 species, variable both in size and general aspect, seven varie- 

 ties having been already enumerated ; but it may be usually 

 known by the obovate, abruptly narrow pointed leaves, which 

 as in B. torquescens, to be described hereafter, are strongly 

 contorted when dry. The lower leaves are ovate oblong and 

 apiculate, but smaller than the upper ones, which become 

 larger, obovate oblong, with long slender points, seeming to 

 render the leaf almost piliferous, entire, or sometimes serrulate 

 at the apex, the nerve either ceasing below it or occasionally 

 excurrent ; and the margin of the leaf reflexed, and frequently 

 composed of narrower cellules than the rest, thus giving it a 

 bordered appearance. The stems are radiculose below, spar- 

 ingly branched either at the base or at the flowering summit, 

 and measuring from a quarter of an inch to an inch in height. 

 The capsule, too, is variable in shape, but usually oblong- 

 pyriform, or sub-clavate in outline, and scarcely constricted 

 below the mouth when dry. The outer teeth of the peristomo 

 are of a reddish brown tint, the inner more deeply coloured, 



