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Herbarium — Part 11

Leaves.--Glossy, turned to one side, or scythe-shaped, rarely erect, crowded at the tops of the stems; apex awl-shaped; base lance-shaped; vein compressed, with four-toothed ridges on the back toward the apex; margin sharply serrate and wavy toward the apex; cells perforated, elongated in the upper part, narrow and worm-like toward the base, large, four-sided and orange-coloured at the angles.

Leaves at the base of the pedicel (perichoetial leaves).--Sheathing at the base.

Habit of flowering.--Male and female flowers on different plants (dioicous).

Veil (calyptra).--Thin, smooth, beaked and split up one side.

Spore-case.--Long, with summit somewhat inclined, rarely erect, cylindrical, somewhat incurved, arched and grooved when dry.

Pedicel (seta).--Solitary, golden-yellow.

Lid (operculum).--Conical at the base, gradually narrowed into a strong beak, reddish, and as long as the spore-case.

Teeth (peristome).--Sixteen, dark-red, cleft to the middle.

Annulus.--None.

Spores.--Mature in summer.

Distribution.--North America, Europe, Asia.

Genus FISSIDENS, Hedw.

The species of this genus are metallic green, plume-like, simple or sparingly branched, growing in mats upon shady wet banks and rocks; sometimes on tree-trunks, and sometimes floating in water.

The leaves grow in two opposite rows (distichous), and are double below as if folded together, they are winged along the back and expanded toward the apex into a vertical simple blade; the vein extends to or beyond the apex; the cells are small and filled with leaf-green.

The spore-cases are erect, horizontal or pendent, always smooth and terminal, unless they have been thrust to one side by the growth of a branch at the base of the pedicel.

The peristome is single with sixteen teeth, red at the base and cleft at the apex, a character which has suggested the generic name from the Latin fissus, split, and dens, a tooth. When dry the teeth are incurved. The annulus consists of from one to four rows of large cells.

Five hundred and seventy-eight species are known in all, seventy-four in North America. The genus is represented throughout all the tropical and temperate regions of the world. It is probably to this pretty moss that Mungo Park, the African traveller, referred when he wrote the lines:

"Sad, faint and weary, on the sand

Our traveller sat him down; his hand

Cover'd his burning head.

Above, beneath, behind, around,

No resting for the eye he found;

All nature seemed as dead.

One tiny tuft of moss alone,

Mantling with freshest green a stone,

Fix'd his delighted gaze;

Through bursting tears of joy he smiled,

And while he raised the tendril wild,

His lips o'erflowed with praise.

Oh ! shall not He who keeps thee green,

Here in the waste, unknown, unseen,

Thy fellow-exile save?

He who commands the dew to feed

Thy gentle flower, can surely lead

Me from a scorching grave.

Thy tender stalks, and fibres fine,

Here find a shelter from the storm;

Perhaps no human eye but mine

Ere gazed upon thy lovely form.

He that form'd thee, little plant,

And bade thee flourish in this place,

Who sees and knows my every want,

Can still support me with His grace.'

Fissidens adiantoides, Hedw.

Habit and habitat.--In bright or dark-green mats on moist shady ground, wet rocks and roots of trees. Varying according to locality.

Name.--The specific name is compounded of maidenhair, and the suffix like, referring to the habit the leaves of the maidenhair have of shedding water, being compounded of a, without, and wet.

Plant (gametophyte).--Stems 1 to 5 inches long; branches growing from the apex or base of the stem, with root-like fibres at their base.

Leaves.--Numerous, close, overlapping like shingles, linear-oblong, clasping at the base; apex taper-pointed and tipped with a short point continuous with the vein, the wing long and continuous; margins transparent, irregularly and minutely serrate.

Habit of flowering.--Male and female flowers on different parts of the same plants (autoicous); male flower-clusters small, axillary, bud-like.

Veil (calyptra).--Split on one side.

Spore-case.--Oval, red-brown, much constricted under the orifice when empty.

Pedice.--Red, 1/2 to 1 inch long, appearing as if attached to the side of the stem.

Lid (operculum).--Conical, with a long beak.

Teeth (peristome).--Red, sixteen, each cleft into two slender segments with numerous cross-bars; inclined when dry.

Annulus.--One or two rows of large cells.

Spores.--Mature in December.

Distribution.--Universal.