34 



It gives rae great pleasure^, in looking over the valuable bo- 

 tanical collection made by Dr. Scouler on the north-west 

 coast of America, to find a plant belonging to his favourite 

 tribC;, the Musci, which, constituting a new genus, I am thus 

 able to dedicate to him. During three years that Mr. Scou- 

 ler attended the College course of botanical lectures, I wit- 

 nessed with satisfaction his increasing love for natural hi- 

 story ; and although the anatomy and physiology of animals 

 be his most fav^ourite pursuit, and the one by which it is to 



1 



be expected that he w ill^ at a future time^ rise to much fame, 

 •yet botany has occupied a great share of his attention, and 

 his herbarium includes much of novelty from the countries 

 which, Hke a second Menzies, he has visited, and, as a natu- 

 ralist, successfully investigated. 



The present moss. Dr. Scouler gathered in running streams 

 at Observatory Inlet, in a latitude nearly parallel with that 

 of London^ on the north-west coast of America. At first 

 sight it might almost be taken for Cinclidotus fontinaloides 

 or Anictangium aquaticum^ but on a more careful examina- 



I 



tion, the fructification will be found as widely diflfercnt from 

 that of the species just mentioned, as from every other plant 

 of the order. Here are thirty-two distinct teeth, more or 

 less cleft at the extremity. The operculum does not fall away, 

 but separates from the capsule by the sinking down (if I may 



■ h 



use the term) of the upper part of the capsule, which thus 

 assumes a highly remarkable yet constantly regular depressed 

 shape ; and long after the dispersion of the seed, and in the 

 oldest state of the fructification, the operculum firmly ad- 

 heres to the smnmit of the curiously exserted columella, 

 from which it can only be removed by laceration. 



Mr. Drummond has been so fortunate as to find the same 

 plant in a part of the Columbia which borders upon the 

 Rocky Mountains, and in other streams of that region ; 

 so that it is probably scattered over the whole extent of 



