The Thread-Mosses. 159 



and less deeply divided than in B. coespiticium. The spores 

 are small and green, and the inflorescence is dioicons. 



Of the different varieties of this moss variety ma/jus 

 grows more densely tufted, has a longer stem, broader leaves, 

 surrounded by a broader and more evident border, an excur- 

 rent nerve, and a larger and thicker capsule. 



Variety minus has a smaller capsule, concave imbricated 

 leaves, and roundish sterile branches. 



Variety flaccid um has slender branches, with more tender 

 flaccid leaves of a pale hue, the lower ones purplish, not con- 

 torted when dry, and more evidently serrated at the apex. 

 This is the Bryum stellar e of Smith's English Botany. 



Variety Ferchelii has slender stems and branches, very 

 compactly tufted, smaller, leaves ob ovate -acuminate, concave, 

 reddish, and sub-piliferous, with a smaller obovate, and at 

 length truncate capsule, constricted below the mouth. 



Variety carinthiacum has slender elongated stems, with 

 slender branches, and erecto-patent leaves of a reddish hue, 

 obovate, rather broad, shortly acuminate, obscurely bordered, 

 and slightly twisted when dry. 



Variety cochlearifolium has roundish branches, with very 

 concave glossy leaves, roundish, and having narrowly reflexed 

 points, the fruit-stalk thicker, and the capsule obovate-pyri- 

 form, and quite pendulous. This beautiful variety is called by 

 Nees ab Esenbeck Bryum elegans. 



The much rarer species, Bryum Donianum, or Don's thread- 

 moss, is not unlike B. Gapillare in aspect, but the leaves have 

 only very short points formed by the scarcely excurrent nerve, 

 and are by no means suddenly attenuated and subpiliferous as 

 in that species. They are scarcely obovate, more resembling 

 those of B. pollens, which has also what B. Gapillare never 

 has, a thickened border, though less conspicuously so than is 

 seen in this species ; and when dry the leaves are only crisped 

 or undulated, and slightly twisted, not contorted as those of 

 B. Gapillare. They are also of a green colour, never reddish, 

 and of a somewhat firmer consistence than found among its 

 allies. The sub-pendulous capsule is of a pale reddish brown, 

 long, clavate, with apiculate lid, and contracted below the 

 mouth in the dry state. Its habitats are rocks and sandy 

 banks. Winwick Stone Quarry, near Warrington, and near 

 Conway, North Wales, are the localities in which Mr. Wilson 

 mentions having found it — a damp sandbank near Hurstpier- 

 point ; and also the neighbourhood of Winchelsea, in Sussex, 

 are likewise mentioned as having been visited by its presence. 



During the month of September and early in October, on 

 the Clova mountains, at a considerable elevation, near the 

 limits of perpetual snow, where Hooker says it was seen in 



