The Dicranums, or Fork-Mosses. 249 



it the bristly appearance, and passing insensibly into the broader 

 laminar substance of which the lower part of the leaf is composed. 

 The capsule is cernuous, or sometimes sub-erect, obovate, 

 gibbous, uniformly coloured of a : reddish brown, with a some- 

 what, but never distinctly, strumose neck ; the lid conical at the 

 base, and tapering into a long beak, sometimes, but not always, 

 with the reaping-hook-like curvature towards the extremity, 

 as given in the illustration, which is a magnified representation 

 of a specimen gathered from Ferny Hills, Nailsworth, where it 

 seems to grow much more diminutively than in most other 

 places, the usual height assigned to this moss being about an 

 inch, while the specimens from Ferny Hills do not reach one- 

 fourth of that measurement. The seta or fruit-stalk is slender, 

 of a pale yellowish colour, and rather long in proportion to the 

 plant. When dry and empty the capsule is slightly and ob- 

 liquely furrowed, by which character and by the pale seta 

 Wilson says it may always be distinguished. 



In Dicranum pellucidum, or the Transparent Fork-moss, 

 the leaves instead of being secund are squarrose, and variously 

 bent. In form they are lanceolate from a slightly sheathing 

 base, rather obtuse, entire, serrated or crenulate at the apex 

 only, papillose on both sides, especially at the back and along 

 the nerve, slightly undulated in the margin, keeled, and twisted 

 or crisped when dry j and as D. heteromallum is found in 

 patches of a deep, though bright green, D. jpellucidum on the 

 contrary grows in patches of a light green colour, from one to 

 two inches high. The capsule is seated on a rather thick and 

 wavy pale fruit-stalk ; it is usually sub-cernuous, but in one 

 variety erect, always roundish, shortly ovate or oblong, with 

 thick firm walls of a reddish brown, becoming at length 

 blackish, and destitute of a struma. The teeth of the peristome 

 are variable both in form and markings, sometimes but very 

 slightly cloven, and sometimes with prominent bars. The lid 

 is large, conical at the base, with a longer or shorter oblique 

 beak, always much thicker than in heteromallum. 



D. pellucidum grows on wet rocks and stones in shady 

 rivulets, and loves the spray of cascades. 



Dicranum Schreberi, or Schreber's Fork-moss, grows also 

 in light green patches, but the stems are only from half an 

 inch to one inch in height. It is also found by rivulets or 

 ditches, on sandy or clayey soil, but is regarded as rare. The 

 inflorescence of all three is dioicus, the barren flower being 

 terminal on a separate individual. 



The leaves of D. Schreberi are widely spreading, and flexuose ; 

 from a broad sheating base they suddenly contract into a 

 narrowly lanceolate, or lanceolato- subulate form, denticulate in 

 the margin near the apex, with a nerve ceasing below the 



