36 | REVUE BRYOLOGIQUE 
One of the most interesting mosses common to Britain and the 
Atlantic Is/is Ulola calvescens Wils.(U. villala Mütt.). It has been 
exclusively recorded from the west of Ireland (and County 
Antrim), the west of Scotland, a single county in Wales, and 
from Madeira. It has not been recorded from continental Europe, 
and indeed the whole genus is very sparingly represented in the 
Iberian peninsula. It seemed possible that U. calvescens might 
occurin Portugal, and wekept a keen look out for itin likely locali- 
ties. In Britain it usually occurs on the branches and twigs of small 
 bushes by the side of streams, and as we followed up the mountain 
ravines and streamlets of the Monchique Hills every likely bush 
overhanging the water was examined, but in vain. Owing no : 
doubt to the slight amount of condensation during the summer 
months there are very few arboreal mosses in these parts, and 
those which occur are mostly on the comparatively small num- 
ber of old trees to be found, principally olives. (The chestnuts 
are cut down to the ground about every 20 years, the olives rarely 
grow to a large size, the carob is a smooth-barked and most 
inhospitable host, while the cork oaks are of course periodically 
stripped of their bark). One day we made an ascent of Foya, the 
highest point of the Monchique Hills and indeed of Algarve 
(903 mètres). The summit is almost entirely bare of anything 
but low herbaceous vegetation, with outcrops of large granite 
boulders, but here and there amid the granite outcrop were 
dwarfed bushes of Cratægus, scarcely a metre in height, on 
the branches of which we found Neckera pumila e.fr.A few yards 
below the summit on the North side we came upon a hollow of 
peaty soil from which a streamlet ran, with a small but dense 
growth of Rhododendron ponticum in magnificent flower, and 
among the Rhododendrons was a single bush of Cratægus, dwarf 
and densely branched, and on its branches a thick growth of the 
much desired Ulota calvescens ! Whether the entire world’s crop 
of this interesting plant (apart from its insular stations) is confined 
to that single bush of Cratægus is a doubtful point; certainly 
we neither saw it again nor did we see any spot likely to afford 
the necessary conditions of moisture with equable climate on 
which it so much depends. IE is however quite possible that it 
may occur in some of the sheltered woods of North Portugal or 
of Galicia, near the coast. 
We made Caldas de Monchique our head quarters, and sear- 
ched the higher ground, the steep Cistus-covered slopes, the 
+ rugged Barrancos or ravines, and the chestnut woods of Monchi- 
que. The topography, geology and climatology of the district 
