Chapter D: ARCTICUM. Schp. Its general appearance better distinguishes it from

_D. Starkii_ than its microscopical characters. It is _quite erect_, growing in large loose patches, stems 3–4in., elastic, very robust; foliage of a fine purplish brown colour; leaf wider below, and more suddenly contracted upwards, with a thinner nerve; fruits earlier. [Hunt. l. c. p. 321.]

Ben-mac-dhui and Ben Nevis.

92. D. CIRCINNATUM. Wils.

Add as synonyms _Dicranodontium aristatum_. Schp. _D. asperulum._ Mitt.

96. D. PALUSTRE. Brid. Dr. Braithwaite points out in _Grevillea_ I., 109, that La Pylaie’s specimens of this moss (Bridel Bryol. Univ. I. 814) belong to _Campylopus flexuosus_, as shewn by De Notaris in his Epil. Bryol. Ital.; and that hence the name D. BONJEANII, De Not. is to be preferred. The synonymy would then stand:—

96. D. BONJEANII. De Not. Syllab. Muse. 213 (1838); Muell. Synopsis I., 369 (1849). _D. palustre._ Bry. Eur. and Bry. Brit., p. 79 (_non_ Bridel.) _D. undulatum._ Turn. Musc. Hib.

The following amended diagnosis of this species is from the same author (in _Grev._ i., 109):—“Seta solitary; st. erect; l. more or less erecto-patent, straight, from a broad linear flat base, broadly oblong-lanceolate, gradually narrowed into a strap-shaped point, tapering into an acute apex, lightly undulate above, canaliculate; margin acutely serrate above, teeth uniform in shape and direction; nerve very narrow, vanishing below apex, _smooth_ at back; basal cells short quadrate, brownish, above elongate hexagonal or parallelogramic, uppermost elliptic-oblong.”

361. _E. minimum_, Hunt. is now ascertained to be SPLACHNOBRYUM WRIGHTII, Muell., and can hardly be considered as indigenous, “for the spores have most probably been mixed with soil attached to some exotic, and thus accidentally scattered on the wall where it was found.”—[Braithwaite.]

SPLACHNOBRYUM. C. Muell. Verhand. Zool. Bot. Ges. Wien, 1869. p. 501.

“Calyp. dimidiate, enclosing the whole theca and embracing spirally the upper part of the seta, cleft at side, smooth, fugacious. Perist. simple, arising below mouth of caps., teeth 16 very narrow, linear-lanceolate acicular, with the articulations remote. Columella immersed. Dioicous, male fl. gemmaceous, without paraphyses. Plants small slender, with distant spathulate leaves.”

S. WRIGHTII. Muell. l. c. (_Entosthodon minimus_, Hunt. l. c. _Amblyphyllum Hibernicum_, Lindb. MS.)

“St. ¼–⅓in. simple sub-flexuose, pale red, slightly radiculose; l. bright green distant (base narrow, slightly decurrent), patent, flattish, obovate or spathulate, rounded at apex, margin reflexed below, entire or minutely serrulate in male, crenulate above in female plant, nerve thick, prominent at back, vanishing below apex; cells large lax, pellucid, smooth, incrassate, rhombo-rectangular at base, rhomboidal above, smaller and nearly circular at margin; caps. erect, obconical at base, sub-cylindrical, wide-mouthed, pale brown; seta slender, twisted to left; lid conical acute.” [Dr. Braithwaite, l. c.]