1 12 ANNALS OF SCOTTISH NATURAL HISTORY 



I have seen this spirit of extermination manifested elsewhere 

 during my rambles on the mountains. 



Conostomuin (?) extenuatuin, Tufts small, dense, of a 

 yellowish colour above, reddish below ; stems red-radiculose, 

 simple or sparingly branched ; leaves small, upright, closely 

 appressed to the stem both in a dry and wet state, but with 

 the long apices slightly spreading, narrowly ovate, longly 

 acuminate, not papillose, margin plane and entire ; no 

 auricles ; nerve ultimately red, about one-fourth the breadth 

 of the leaf near the base, longly excurrent and smooth, 

 length of acumen 30 to 50 /z, while the length of the pagina 

 proper is only about 90 ^ ; areolation of the pagina small, 

 oblong, detached, and nearly the same throughout, 18 to 26 

 by 5 to 7 /*. 



The variety of Rhacomitrium Jieterostichum, formerly 

 described under the name amblyphyllum, turned up last year 

 near Killin. It is characterised by its short, upright, simple 

 or sparingly dichotomously branched stems, with only here 

 and there the short, bud-like branches of the type, its broad, 

 short leaves, length about four times the greatest breadth, as 

 well as by their blunt apices, blunter even than those of 

 Grimmia pulvinata. 



Grimmia retracta (Strn.) and its variety submutica occur 

 frequently on the southern shores of Loch Tay. They are 

 known even in the field from Gr. Hartmani by their darker 

 colour, by their leaves clustering in almost cuspidate form at 

 the summits of the stems in a dry state, while those of 

 Gr. Hartmani are straggling, almost divaricate. The pagina 

 in the upper third in the former is nearly bistratose through- 

 out, or interruptedly so, while the leaves of Gr. Hartmani 

 in the same region are unistratose, with one, rarely two, 

 transverse marginal couples of cells. The upper part of the 

 leaf in Gr. submutica is often 3-stratose, and, although rarely, 

 4-stratose in single or double transverse series, intermingled, 

 as it were, amongst the bistratose series much as in Gr. 

 trichophylla. Accordingly, submutica may turn out to be a 

 species proper. 



Gymnostomum calcareum was found lately by Mr. D. 

 Haggart on the mortar of walls near Killin. So far as I 

 know, this is the first record of this moss for Scotland. 



