Webera Albicans Moss
Webera albicans, Schimp.Habit and habitat.- This pretty moss grows in soft tufts of a light-green colour in wet sand on the borders of streams, and in swampy land along wheel ruts.
Name.-The specific name albicans, whitish, has reference to its peculiar pale-green colour.
Plant (gametopbyte).-Simple, erect or inclined; 1 to 4 inches long; stein reddish or dark-purple.
Leaves.-The lower ovate, oblong and taper-pointed, the upper oblong-lanceolate, soft, yellowish or pale-green; vein vanishing below the apex; margin serrate near apex; leaves around the male flowers broad and concave at the base, open and lanceolate above.
Habit of flowering.-Male and female flowers on separate plants, male flowers in a disk-like head.
Spore-case.-Inclined or pendent, short-pear-shaped, inflated at the neck (collum); green with a bloom, becoming brown; somewhat round and wide-mouthed when empty.
Pedicel.-Long, generally reddish and bent at the base.
Lid (operculum).-Conical with a nipple (mammillate).
Teeth (peristome). Large, orange-coloured.
Annulus.-None.
Spores.-Mature in spring and early summer.
Distribution.-Almost universal.