PORELLA, in botany, the name of a genus of mosses, the characters of which are these: The capsules contain a powder like those of the other mosses; and they have neither operculum, calyptra, nor pedicle; and their manner of shedding their powder is not by separating into two parts, like those of the selago and lycopodium, but by opening into several holes on all sides.
Of this genus of mosses there is only one known species; this is called by Dillenius the bluntly pinnated porella, and grows in wet places in Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and other parts of North America.