Macromitrium scoparium Mitten 1869

Macromitrium scoparium Mitt. Jour
Linn. Soc. 12: 206. 1869.
Macromitrium trichophyllum Mitt. Jour. Linn. Soc. 12: 207. 1869.
Plants attached in dense masses to twigs and branches, brown below, bright golden-green above; secondary stems up to 3 cm. or more long, densely foliate; leaves somewhat contorted and slightly spreading from a nearly erect base when dry, erect-spreading when moist, 6 mm. or morelong on vigorous plants, lanceolate-linear, somewhat plicate, narrowly long-acuminate, serrulate at the apex and often half the distance from it, carinate at the base ; costa excurrent into a dentate arista often }i the length of the leaf ; upper median leaf-cells of stem and branch leaves 2-4 times as long as broad or even more elongate, smooth, very incrassate, arranged in clear lines; marginal cells in this region very narrowly long-linear, the other cells gradually elongating toward the base where they become narrowly linear, their lumen scarcely as wide as the cell walls, and usually sparingly papillose with comparatively low papillae, the basal often colored; perichaetial leaves rather shorter, more abruptly long-acuminate, all their cells narrowly linear; seta up to 1 cm. long, smooth or sometimes bearing a few low papillae in the upper part; capsules globose-pyriform, not quite 2 mm. long, the urn smaller at the mouth, often slightly ribbed; calyptra without hairs; operculum hemispheric, the beak needle-like, more than 1 mm. long; peristome double, about 0.4 mm. long, the teeth more or less united, truncate, striate-papillose; inner peristome membranous, rather irregularly divided, as long as the outer, papillose; spores finely papillose, variable in size, up to 25 fj. in diameter, maturing in winter.
Type: Jamaica (Wilds; cotype seen).
Distribution : Common in the West Indies, usually at considerable elevations.