CRYPTOGAMIA. MUSCI. Hypnum. 1069 
Its structure is very singular; one large compound shoot proceeding from 
the middle or disk of another, and this repeated several times in the same 
plant. Linn. A span long or more, doubly winged. Fruit-stalks an inch 
long (or more) from the middle of the shoot, and from the rib of the 
branches one to three (four or five) in a place. Involucrum large, 
conical, hairy. Lid conical, pointed. Veil oblique. Weis. Capsules 
leaning, reddish, thick. Mouth , fringe in a double row. Leaves so 
minute as hardly to be well distinguished by the naked eye. Capsules 
reddish, at first straight, then crooked. The leaves smaller, not shining, 
the shoots more serpentine, and the bristly involucrum distinguish this 
from H. parietinum. Dill. II. parietinum , and II. proliferum of Gmel. 
are both the same plant. 
(Proliferous Feather-moss. H.parietinum. Willd. E.) Heaths and 
thick shady woods. P. Dec.—Feb. 
This singularly elegant Moss covers the surface of the earth in the thickest 
woods, through which the sun never penetrates, and where no other plant 
can subsist. Linnaeus. 
(Here might be introduced that very bone of contention, H. recognitum, (E. 
Bot. 1495), which, unimportant as so minute a production may appear 
to ordinary perceptions, has actually occasioned a war (bellum civile ), of 
the Giants; but not presuming to rank with the ec Maximi,” even “ in 
minimis,” and, availing ourselves of the privilege of the statura brevi,” 
we beg to refer the inquisitive student to the arena itself. Vid. Linn. 
Tr. vol. xiii. p. 461. Muse. Brit. 1? 1. E.) 
H. parietinum. Shoots proliferous, nearly flat, shining: fruit-stalks 
several together: involucrum scaly. 
( E . Bot. 1424— Muse. Brit. xxv. E.)-— Vaill. 29. 1—- Dill. 35. 13— Buxh. ii. 
1. 2, and ii. 2. 1— Happ. 1, Hypn. 3— Vaill. 29. 1— Schmid. 58. 3. 
Fruit-stalks four, five, or more together, at the base of the branches ; about 
fifteen lines long. Shoot bent at the places where the branches issue out, 
so as to be zigzag. Very like H. proliferum in its mode of growth, and 
the proliferous shoots sending out other similar shoots, but the leafits 
are more distinct, less compacted together, of a pale green with a silky 
gloss. Weis. Shoots lying on the ground, from a span to a foot long, 
consisting of three or four parts, shewing the annual increase; and as it 
grows in length at one end, the other end is converted into roots. Branches 
winged. The new shoot puts forth in the spring not from the end of the 
old one, but near to its end; it is very densely clothed with leaves, and 
after a time sends out branches. Fence scales reflexed. Dill. Both in 
this and in H. proliferum , the shoots resemble the winged leaves of 
Ferns. 
(Shining Tamarisk Feather-moss. H. parietinum. Huds. Lightf. 
With. Relh. Ab. Sw. Both. Hoffm. Neck. Weis. II. splendens. Hedw. 
Sibth. Turn. Sm. Hook. E.) Woods, heaths, and shady places. 
B. Feb.—March. 1 * 
H. fili cinum. Shoots simply winged: leaves oblong, taper-pointed, 
reflexed, pointing one way: capsules nearly cylindrical: lid 
convex. 
{FI. Dan . 1123. 1 —E. Bot. 1570— Muse. Brit. xxvi. E.)— Vaill. 29. 9— 
Dill. 36. 19. 
* Used in Sweden to fill up the chinks in the walls of timber houses* 
