NOTES ON MOSSES. ee Ot 


cucullate, pale, and rather small ; peristome double, and possessed 
of intermediate cilia ; the outer peristome of 16 equidistant teeth, 
the inner a membrane divided half-way down into 16 carinate pro- 
cesses alternating with the outer teeth ; spores small reddish-brown 
or yellow ; inflorescence, dioicous, monoicous, or synoicous. 
More species are recorded as ripening in this month than in any 
other single month; about one-third of the species fruiting in 
October and November, and one-third in April and May. Many 
species do not fruit at all in Britain. 
In the genus Zhusdium there are five species distinguished by 
their erect pinnate or bipinnate stems with numerous branched 
villi, and densely papillose character of the leaves. Frequent 
round Manchester in woods and on banks in a barren state, 
and fruiting in Millers Dale is Zhuidium tamariscinum, the 
Tamarisk Feather Moss, so named from its resemblance to the 
Spanish shrub Zamarisk Gallica. It is dioicous ; stems arched 
and interruptedly tripinnate, with short leafy processes (villi) on 
the stem amongst the leaves; stem leaves cordate, acuminate, 
plicate ; branch leaves ovate, obtuse; serrulate near and almost 
nerved to apex; all papillose at back ; capsule oblong-cylindrical, 
curved, cernuous ; lid with a long beak. 
The genus Brachythecium comprises fourteen species recognised 
by their irregularly branched stems and silky, patent or sub-secund 
leaves, more or less decurrent, thinly nerved and striate; cells 
narrowly hexagon rhomboid; capsules ovate, sub-globose, or oblong. 
Very rare is B. salebrosum, the smooth-stalked, streaky, Feather 
Moss ; stems sub-pinnate ; leaves ovate, acuminate, sub-serrulate ; 
striated, nerved above half-way ; capsule shortly ovate, cernuous ; 
lid conical, monoicous. A variety, J/i/deanum, with lanceolate 
leaves, is found on the sands at Southport. 
The larger streaky Feather Moss, B. glareosum, has been found 
in Cotterill Clough, and is distinguished from B. salebrosum by 
the dioicous inflorescence and the more tapering leaves with very 
long slender twisted points; capsule ovate-oblong, cernuous, 
arcuate ; lid conical, with a distinct beak. 2. albicans, the 
whitish Feather Moss, is found amongst grass in sandy places, but 
is not common in fruit. It is known from allied species by its 
slender, delicate habit, and by the pale green membranous leaves, 
which are closely imbricated, ovate-lanceolate ; striaedt, entire and 
nerved above half-way; capsule ovate, cernuous; lid conical. 
Common on walls, sandy hedge-banks, and at the roots of trees is 
B. veluttuum, the velvet Feather Moss. Growing in compact, dull- 
green patches, its stems are creeping, with short, erect, crowded 
branches ; leaves sub-secund, ovate-lanceolate, acuminate, serrulate 
at the apex; nerved above halfway; capsule ovate, cernuous ; lid 
conical, apiculate. 

