SPLACHNUM, in botany, a genus of the cryptogamia musci. There are two species.
1. The ampullaceum, or crewet splachnum, is found in bogs and marshes, and often upon cow-dung. It grows in thick tufts, and is about two inches high. The leaves are oval-lanceolate, terminated with a long point or beard. The top of the filament or peduncle swells into the form of an inverted cone, which Linnaeus terms an apophysis or unbraculum; upon the top of which is placed a cylindrical anthera, like the neck of a crewet. The calyptra is conical, and resembles a small extinguisher.
2. The vasculosum, or acorn-shaped splachnum, is found upon bogs and cow-dung, and upon the points of rocks on the tops of the Highland mountains, as on Ben-Lomond, and in the Isle of Sky, and elsewhere. This differs little from the preceding, and perhaps is no more than a variety. The filaments are about an inch high. The leaves oval-acute, not so lanceolate and bearded as the other. The apophysis, and the anthera at the top of it, form together nearly an oval figure, not unlike an acorn in its cup, the apophysis being transversely semioval and of a blood-red colour, the anthera short and conical. The calyptra is the same as that of the other. The operculum is short and obtuse, and the rim of the anthera has eight large horizontal cilia. The anthera of the other is also ciliated, but not so distinctly. It is an elegant moss, and very distinguishable on account of its orange-coloured filaments and dark-red capsules.