356 The Genus Fissidens ; or, the Flat Fork-Mosses. 



•when dry, and with a pellucid nerve extending almost to the 

 apex, the dorsal wing broad to the base, but not decurrent. As 

 in the rest of the genus, they are cquitant, i.e., inserted in two 

 ranks, the leaves of each rank partly sheathing each other at 

 the base of the leaf. 



The seta arises from near the root to about, or rather more 



than half an inch in 

 height, is nexuose, curv- 

 ed at the top, and its 

 perichetial leaves are 

 pointed, convolute, 

 ovate, and sheathing ; 

 the capsule is oblong, 

 or obovate, inclined or 

 horizontal, of thick tex- 

 ture, constricted below 

 the mouth when dry, 

 reddish brown ; the lid 

 convex at the base, 

 with a beak nearly as 

 long as the capsule; 

 the calyptra whitish, 

 rather longer than the 

 lid, and dimidiate, or 

 splitting along one side. 

 The oblong vaginula is distinct, and not insensibly passing into 

 the perichetial ramulus as in truly pleurocarpous mosses. 



The illustration given is, of course, considerably magnified. 

 Another example of the cladocarps, and looking at first 

 sight much more like a pleurocarp, is Fissidens adiantoides, or 

 the marsh flat fork-moss, the smaller forms of which somewhat 

 resemble F. taxifolius, from which however it is clearly distin- 

 guished by the position of the fruit stalk, which is lateral at a 

 considerable distance from the base of the main stem, which 

 latter is elongated and branched, with crowded, ovate, lanceolate 

 leaves, denticulate at the apex, minutely serrulate below, and 

 nerved to the point. In moist situations the stem reaches more 

 than two inches in length, with dark green leaves and sub-fas- 

 ciculate branches, more loosely casspitose ; in dryer situations it 

 is shorter and more densely tufted. The leaves are crisped 

 and incurved when dry. Tho fruit stalks rise from about the 

 middle of the stem to from half an inch to an inch in length. 

 The capsule is more or less inclined, of tllick texture, constricted 

 below the mouth, and somewhat turbinate when dry. The lid 

 with a long beak, and the calyptra still longer. Its favourite 

 habitats arc shady hanks, wet pastures and bogs, and on wet 

 rocks near waterfalls. 



FISSIDENS TASIFOLirS. 



