in botany: A genus of plants belonging to the class of cryptogamia, and order of myci. The antherae are cylindrical, and grow on a large coloured apophysis or umbraculum. The calyptra is caducous. The female star grows on a separate stem. There are six species, the rubrum, luteum, sphericum, ampullaceum, vaculosum, angustatum. Two of these are natives of Britain.

1. The ampullaceum, or crevet 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 umbraculum; upon the top of which is placed a cylindrical anthera, like the neck of a crevet. The calyptra is conical, and resembles a small extinguisher.

2. The vaculosum, or acorn-shaped splachnum, is found upon bogs and cow-dung, and upon the points of rocks. Spleen rocks on the top 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 tranversely semi-oval, 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.