250 The Bicranums, or Fork-Mosses. 



point. When, dry they become slightly crisped. The peri- 

 chgetial are larger than the others. The capsule, like that of 

 lieteromallum, is cernuous or sub-erect, but in form it differs in 

 being shortly ovate, regular or slightly curved, and having a 

 large lid but shortly rostrate, about as long as the capsule. 



Dicranum crispum, or the Curl-leaved Fork-moss, is found 

 in incoherent patches of a green colour ; the stems not half an 

 inch high, and scarcely branched. It grows on moist banks 

 in a sandy soil, but is not common. The leaves are not much 

 crowded, widely spreading, wavy and subulate, with a suddenly 

 dilated sheathing base, somewhat glossy and minutely denti- 

 culate, the nerve forming the principal portion of the upper 

 parts of the leaf. When dry the leaves are crisped. The 

 capsule is borne erect on a reddish fruit-stalk, ovate or ovate- 

 oblong, not strumose, but having an annulus, and furrowed 

 when dry ; the lid is conical at the base, as in the rest of the 

 genus, with an oblique awl-shaped beak. The plant is suffi- 

 ciently distinguished from its allies by the very narrow crisped 

 leaves and erect striated capsule. The inflorescence is monoicus ; 

 the barren flower shaped like a small bud. 



In the variable Fork-moss, Dicranum varium, the inflo- 

 rescence is dioicus, the stems short, cespitose, or loosely 

 aggregate, of a rufous green colour, scarcely half an inch long. 

 The leaves are more or less secund, lanceolate, carinate, and 

 entire or slightly toothed at the apex, the margin reflexed, 

 nerve sub-excurrent, the perichastial leaves scarcely sheathing, 

 and hardly differing from the rest. The capsule varies from 

 ovate to oblong, more or less oblique and incurved, slightly 

 tumid at the base, its walls thick and smooth. The fruit- stalk 

 twists to the right ; the lid is large, with a short beak. The 

 peristome is large, deeply cleft, and of a deep red colour, the 

 teeth converging. No annulus, and the barren flowered plants 

 are more slender than the fertile ones. Soil and locality make 

 considerable difference in this, one of the commonest species of 

 the genus. Habitat, moist banks. 



D. rufescens, or Reddish Fork-moss, has also a dioicous 

 inflorescence, with short gregarious stems scarcely branched, 

 sub-erect, bright red; leaves almost pellucid, lax, secund, 

 reddish, linear lanceolate, with plane margins, obscurely toothed 

 and loosely cellular. The capsule is erect, smooth ovate, reddish, 

 with a short neck ; the lid large, with a short beak ; the fruit- 

 stalk twisted to the left. The teeth of the peristome are more 

 closely barred than inD. varium, and it is altogether a more ele- 

 gant moss; this circumstance, joined to its colour, at once distin- 

 guishing it, though found in similar spots. All the above species 

 flare found in fruit during this month, and it is hoped the above 

 descriptions will suffice to render them easily distinguishable. 



