
312 THE NORTHERN MICROSCOPIST. 
Of the two broad groups into which the genus Brachythecium is 
divided, ve/utinum belongs to the second or rough-stalked fruit- 
stalked, while the four preceding species are members of the first 
group, having smooth setas. ~ 
Found only on the summit of Ben Lawers, and never in fruit, is 2. 
cirrhosum, the tendril-pointed Feather Moss, from the long, narrow 
points of the leaves, resembling Zurhynchium piliferum, of which 
it is thought it may possibly be a variety, though different in its 
manner of growth. It occurs in similar situations on the Alps of 
Switzerland and Germany. 
Having rough fruitstalks, but differing from the last genus in 
their narrow and wavy-like (vermicular) cell-structure are Sc/erofo- 
dium cespitosum, the green-patch Feather Moss, found on damp 
walls and roots of trees in Lancashire, Cheshire, Yorkshire, and 
Derbyshire ; and Scleropodium illecchrum, the alluring Feather 
Moss, frequenting banks and rocks near the sea, mainly in the 
Southern Counties. 
Also, divided into two groups, with smooth or rough setas, is 
the genus Eurhynchium, the principal distinguishing feature being 
the lid with its long beak. The stems are more or less pin- 
nately branched, and the areolation narrowly-thomboid or sub- 
vermicular and dilated at the angles ; capsules either cernuous or 
horizontal. 
Of the species, so very rare as to be doubtful, although figured 
in Bryologia Britannica, is Z. s¢rigosum, the rustling Feather Moss, 
the only recorded find being in Cornwall. 
Common on trunks of trees and rocks is £. myosurotdes, the 
acute-leaved Feather Moss, Stems slender, with fasciculate 
branches ; leaves lanceolate-acuminate, spreading from an ovate 
base ; serrulate and nerved more than half-way ; capsule elliptic- 
oblong, inclined on a smooth-twisted or curved seta; dioicous. 
Found on moist rocks in a barren state in several localities in the 
neighbourhood of Manchester, and in fruit near Bolton and near 
Todmorden, is Heterocladium heteropterum, the wry-leaved Feather 
Moss. Stems procumbent, often rooting at the apex ; leaves ovate- 
acuminate, small, more or less secund, denticulate (with small 
teeth), somewhat papillose at back, nerved half-way, or shortly 
nerved and forked ; capsules oblong, almost erect on a smooth 
seta ; dioicous. 
Two common Mosses in the neighbourhood of Manchester are 
E. prelongum, the prolonged Feather Moss, found on shady banks, 
and £. Swartsit, Swartz’s Feather Moss, found on moist banks 
and rocks, 
£. prelongum has sub-pinnate stems, two or three inches long, with 
slender attenuated branches ; leaves of the principal stem squarrose, 
recurved, broadly cordate, and suddenly tapering to a long point ; 

