REVUE BRYOLOGIQUE 23 
higher ground at the head of the stream, but distances were de- 
ceptive, the route winding, (and, if Austrian notice-boards are 
truthful, lebensgefährlich) ; moreover, the bryology was sufli- 
ciently interesting to cause considerable delay. Dicranum viride 
cfr., Veckera pennata, Anomodon apiculatus cfr., Orthothecium in- 
tricatum cfr., Brachythecium lætum and Hypnum fertile were some 
of our obiter lecta. We were therefore obliged to retrace our foots- 
teps before covering much more than half the distance Lo the upper 
sources of the stream. Before doing so however we descended, at 
a spot where the river bed was accessible, to the stream itself, ex-. 
ploring its rocky sides as far as passage was possible. The limes- 
tone cliffs were for the most part moist and dripping and co- 
vered with the rich moss vegetation customary in such spots, 
Metzgeria, Plagiochila, Hypnum molluscum, Orthothecium, Weisia 
rupestris, etc., elc. In one spot where the mosses were densely 
growing over an almost perpendicular rock face in à trickle of 
water, a small patch of moss of a vivid green growing on and 
among other mosses attracted attention, and when viewed with 
the lens revealed very remarkable characters. The exceedinglÿ 
soft texture, the concave, carinate, bordered leaves with lax pel- | 
Jlucid areolation, were all quite unlike anything we knew, and 
the question was even debated whether it was a Bryum or à 
Pleurocarp ! The only European moss to which it bore the fain- 
test resemblance was the alpine form sometimes taken on by, 
Plagiothecium denticulatum, with concave apiculate leaves recur- 
ved at the margins, and lax areolation ; but the carinate leaves 
with single nerve seemed to preclude relationship with that. IL 
was not till the plant could be examined with the microscope on 
our return to England that its true position was made clear and 
it was found to be one of the Hookeriaceæ, referable to the genus 
Distichophyllum, sect. Discophyllum Mitt. Mons. Cardot, to … 
whom it was submitted, informed us that it was certainly an 
undescribed species, and indeed had no very near relatives in the 
genus ; the only celosely allied species in fact being, curiousiÿ 
enough, one quite recently described by himself, D. cavifolium, 
from Fuegia. \ _. 
It would be idle to attempt any explanation of this bryologieal 
« Ovid among the Goths. » The situation, à sheltered but still 
elevated mountain valley, 700 m. abové sea level, far removed 
from any dewelling except perhaps here and there an isolated 
herdsman's mountain hut, precludes the idea of its having been 
transported thither by any freak of horticultural enterprisè. The 
most plausible explanation would be that it was an immigrant “ 
from the east ; this would but add another link to the chain of. 
Pum-UromERn Ale CELL IS. DRE NA RE ne er. 
