BOTANICAL NOTES AND NEWS 121 



BOTANICAL NOTES AND NEWS. 



On Primary Characters in Cerastium. Mr. F. N. Williams 

 ("Journ. Bot.," 1898, pp. 8-10) discusses the value of the char- 

 acters assigned to Cerastium, and comes to the conclusion that the 

 genus may be divided into three subgenera as below (characterised 

 in Latin, which is translated for general use of our readers) : 

 I. Dichodon. Petals deeply emarginate. Styles 3. Capsule straight, 

 dehiscing by 6 teeth, which are erect or spreading and subrevolute 

 at margins. Herbs annual or perennial. II. Strephodon. Petals 

 incised or emarginate. Styles 3 or 5 (sometimes 4). , Capsule 

 straight or curved, dehiscing by 6 or 10 teeth, circinato-convolute 

 at apex, not revolute at margin. Herbs annual or perennial, 

 dichotomously branched, many flowered, rarely simple, corymbosely 

 or subumbellately cymose. III. Orthodon. Petals incised, emar- 

 ginate or laciniate. Styles 5. Capsule straight (but sometimes 

 slightly curved at tip), or more or less curved at base, usually 

 longer than calyx, very seldom shorter, dehiscing by 10 teeth, erect 

 or spreading erect, flat on back or revolute at margin. Herbs 

 annual or not often perennial, varied in habit and in arrangement 

 of flowers. 



Distribution of British Mosses. Mr. E. C. Horrell proposes 

 to compile a census of British Mosses under the Watsonian counties 

 and vice-counties, and he appeals in the " Journal of Botany " 

 (1898, pp. 60-62). He says : " I have looked through most of the 

 magazines, County Floras, Proceedings of Local Natural History 

 Societies, the Botanical Record Club Reports, etc., in the library of 

 the British Museum, and find that fairly good lists have been published 

 for about fifty vice-counties. There are therefore about sixty-two 

 vice-counties in Great Britain for which I can find no lists 

 of the commoner mosses." Among those from which he has 

 " found no satisfactory lists," he enumerates from Scotland the follow- 

 ing : Wigtown, Ayr, Renfrew, Lanark, Peebles, Selkirk, Roxburgh, 

 Berwick, Haddington, Edinburgh, Linlithgow, Stirling, West Perth, 

 Mid Perth, East Perth, Kincardine, S. Aberdeen, N. Aberdeen, 

 Banff, Elgin, Easterness, Westerness, Main Argyle, Dumbarton, 

 Clyde Isles, Kintyre, S. Ebudes, N. Ebudes, W. Ross, E. Ross, E. 

 Sutherland, W. Sutherland, Caithness, Hebrides, Orkney, Shetland. 



We are unaware of what Mr. Horrell regards as a " satisfactory 

 list " ; but, unless he sets aside previous records as unreliable, we 

 fear he has overlooked a good many published records from some 

 of these districts. We cordially recommend his project to all Scotch 

 botanists able to assist him by bringing to his knowledge informa- 

 tion previously overlooked or still unpublished. His address is 

 44 Brompton Square, London, S.W. 



