Bryologia Britannica; Containing the Mosses of Great Britain and Ireland... (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1855 Excerpt: ...Monogr. p. 14. t. 1. Cynodontium cernuum Hedw. Sp. Muse. t. 9. Schwaegr. Didymodon cernuum Swartz, Muse. Suec. t. 1. f. 2. (Herb. Turner.) Ptychostomum cernuum Hornsch. Bridel. Schwaegr. b. Inflorescence synoicous. P. compactum Hornsch. Schwaegr. Suppl. t. 115. Bridel. P. pendulum Hornsch. Bridel. P. cacspiticium Bridel. Hab. On walls and rocks, and on gravelly, sandy, or clayey ground, in waste places, not unfrequent, growing in company with B. ccespiticium, inclinatum, and intermedium. Fr. May. Larger and more robust than B. ccespiticium, with which it has been usually confounded in Britain; the stems more compactly tufted, and copiously beset with radicles. Leaves ovate-acuminate, terminal ones crowded, slightly spreading, erect and scarcely crisped when dry, the margin recurved; nerve excurrent, entire or subserrate at the apex. Capsule more or less pendulous, varying from pyriform to oblong-oval, more or less ventricose and irregular, seldom symmetrical, smooth and somewhat polished, golden or rich olive-brown when ripening, slightly constricted below the mouth when dry, the mouth, peristome, and lid very small, as in the next species, which it otherwise much resembles, differing chiefly in the adhesion of the inner peristome to the outer teeth, which are more obscurely trabeculated. Spores as in that, large, greenish. Annulus large. Anthcridia usually mixed with archegonia in the same flower, sometimes apart in a separate involucre. After much hesitation, we at length admit this to be different from B. inclinatum, though assuredly very closely allied. It may usually be known by its more crowded and erect leaves, more swollen and ventricose capsules, which are less coloured in the border of the mouth, and by the mutually adherent peristomes. In the inf...