Small Limestone Moss

Seligeria tristichoides Kindb. Rev. Bryol. 23: 20. 1896
Seligeria trifaria palula Lindb. Oefv. Sv. Vet.-Akad. Forh. 21: 189. 1864. Seligeria tris'.icha laxa Holz. Bryologist 5: 9. 1902. Seligeria tristichoides laxa Holz. Bryologist 5; 63. 1902.
Plants in bright-green cushions, mixed with lime; stems 3-5 mm. high, crowded and branching, with numerous short sterile, triquetrous innovations: leaves bright-green, spreading or refle.xed, tristichous, 1-1.5 mm. long, lanceolate-subulate from a pale hyaline base; costa percurrent into a rough thick point, not quite filling the awn, ending in a short apical cell; lower cells linear, the upper cells shorter with thick projecting walls; perichaetial leaves longer, erect or spreading, the point scabrous and broader, almost reaching the base of the capsule. Autoicous: antheridia few, in clustered axillary or basal buds: seta erect, or slightly curved, 1-1.5 mm. long, stout: calyptra cucullate, 1 mm. long: capsule ovoid, becoming hemispheric when empty; lid rostrate, 0.5 mm. long; columella more or less persistent and exserted; mouth broad, bordered by darker denser cells; neck lacking; stomata imperfect, around the middle of the capsule; walls with thick irregular hexagonal cells, pustulose when dry; peristome red, inserted below the mouth; teeth incurved, smooth, occasionally perforate, with 10-12 narrow joints: spores yellow, minutely roughened, 18-24 ^ in diameter, maturing in June.
Type locality: Northern Norway.
Distribution: Cliff at Willoughby Lake, Vermont; also in France, on the slopes of the Pyrenees, and Norway.
Illustratio.v: Bryologist 5: 8./. 2-5.