FEltXS AND ilOSSES. 115 
This interesting species looks well in a moss book. It i>s 
agreeably associated with clear, cold streams in the neigh- 
bourhood of Snowdon, and with the bonny banks of Aber- 
i'eldy. Hooker and Taylor arrange the Cubitatc under 
B. ventricosum ; Griffith considers it as not specifically 
distinct from Alpinum. 
X(_'verthek'ss, a considerable difference subsists between, the 
Cttbitate and Alpinum, as noticed by Withering; and thus 
his description runs : " Densely compact in growth, vari- 
ously branched, yet irregular. Leaves numerous, oblong, 
keeled, straight, acute, opaque, smooth, shining, purplish- 
green ; but in old plants, purplish below, dark-red above. 
Fruit-stalks an inch high, dark-red purple, issuing from a 
large purple tubercle, veil purplish. This species is best 
known by its deep shining purple colour, and its rigid stems 
and leaves : the former remaining perfectly straight even 
when moistened. Rocks in mountainous regions are the 
favourite growing places of this beautiful moss, than which 
few among its bretliren look Jietter when carefully dried. 
The Great hairy-thread moss, JS. rurale, friend of the 
peasant's hut, readily affixes its tiny roots in roofs, whether 
thatched or tiled, and on walls and the trunks of trees. 
Linnaeus mentions, that when this moss extends over 
thatched buildings, the thatch, instead of lasting only about 
ten years, will endure for an age. He suggests, that it may 
prove a great security against liability to accidents from 
lire, which renders such covering very objectionable. 
Had Linnaeus lived in the present age, and seen, as we 
have lately had frequent occasion to observe, traces of fire 
among the dry furze and grass which mantle the sides of 
deep railway cuttings, he might fully have appreciated the 
value of this moss. Sparks from the fiery iron steed, whirling 
his living masses of many hundreds of human beings with 
incredible rapidity, not unfrequently set fire to dry herbage ; 
even to hay-stacks, occasionally, when too near his path ; 
and woe to the peasant's thatched hut that stands beside it I 
