THE POLYTRICHACEZ OF WESTERN NORTH AMERICA 297 
So named because the leaves are strongly twisted or contorted 
when dry. ! 
Plants large, gregarious or loosely czespitose, glaucous green above, 
brown below. Stems simple, or with an innovation from under the 
perichetium, loosely and irregularly foliate its whole length. 
Leaves erect, open, twisted and crisped when dry, linear-lanceo- 
late, usually longer upwards on the stem, acute, sheath scarcely 
broader than blade. Margin sharply serrate to the base. Lamelle 
20—40. Marginal cells of the lamelle oval, smooth, not very 
much larger than the others. Vein percurrent, sparingly dentate on 
the back. Perichztial leaves similar to the foliage leaves. 
Calyptra covering the whole capsule. 
Capsule ovate to obovate or cylindric, erect or somewhat curved, 
papillose, when dry slightly constricted under the mouth, without 
stomates. Teeth 32. Lid convex, rostellate. Pedicel long, flexu- 
ous.—On soil, usually clay.—Along the coast from the Alaska Penin- 
sula to California; Rocky Mountains, at least of British Columbia. 
2. Pogonatum capillare (Rich.) Brid., in Bryol. Univ. II, p. 127, 
(1827). 
Pogonaium dentatum Brid., in Bryol. Univ. II, pp. 122 and 744, 
(1827). 
Pogonaium capillare var. dentatum Lindb.,” in Act. Soc. sc. Fenn. 
1072-19 Da 200. 
Name derived from capillaris = hairy; probably referring to the 
hairy calyptra, so common in this family. 
Plants 2.5 cm. high or less, gregarious or loosely cespitose, glauc- 
ous green; male plants smaller. Stems slender, mostly simple, 
loosely foliate, with rhizoids at base. 
® Cardot and Thériot, in ‘‘Mosses of Alaska, ’’ Proc. Wash. Acad. Sci. 4: 327 (1902) 
say “Pogonatum dentatum (Menz.) Brid. is but a western race of P. capillare, charac- 
terized by having slenderer stems than those of the type, and by its pedicel which is 
usually not so flexuous.”” This hardly seems sufficient difference for a variety. 
Cloudy weather and wet soil cause stems to grow longer and more slender. The 
northwest coast of North America is characteristically damp and cloudy. Potatoes 
growing in a dark damp cellar are not called new varieties. Further the difference 
is not constant. The marginal cells of the lamelle vary a great deal, so this dis- 
tinction, shown in the figures in Sullivant’s Icones Muscorum, does not hold. 
