Japan Flora: Stems nearly simple or sparsely forked, erect from a short ascending base, 3-10 cm. long, 4-12 mm. wide including the leaves, with bulbils in upper portion; leaves rather thick and dense, linear-lanceolate, 3-5 mm. long, 0.8-1 mm. wide, ascending, incurved to appressed toward apex, ecostate, acumi­nate, entire, lustrous, scarcely broadened at base; sporangia reniform, in axils of ordinary leaves.--------- Mossy sunny slopes in alpine regions; Hokkaido, Honshu (centr. and n. distr.), Kyushu (Yakushima); rather rare. Kuriles, Kamchatka to Europe and N. America.

var. chinense (Christ) Ohwi.  Stems 8-15 cm. long, rather slender; leaves broadly linear, 3-7 mm. long, 0.5-0.8 mm. wide, spreading to obliquely ascending, the lower ones sometimes slightly de­flexed, slightly incurved above, acuminate. Coniferous woods in mountains; Hokkaido, Honshu, Shikoku, Kyushu; rather rare. s. Kuriles, Korea, and China.

var. somae (Hayata) Ohwi. Stems slender, often rubescent at base, 3-10 cm. long, 3-5 mm. across including the leaves; leaves smaller, narrowly oblong to nar­rowly lanceolate, 2-3 mm. long, 0.5-0.8 mm. wide, short- acuminate, deflexed.  Woods in mountains; Kyushu (Yaku­shima) ; rare. Formosa.