52 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



case with a mallard duck, which had a ring of white 

 feathers round the neck, and was much sought after 

 for the proprietor's collection of stufted birds. 



Before we quitted the decoy the master showed us 

 an anomaly among the trained birds, no less than a 

 duck more than thirty years of age. It had been in 

 the pond all its life, and had grown curly tail 

 feathers like a drake for some seasons, having ceased 

 to lay, or take any interest in nesting matters, 

 though surrounded by descendants to the twenty- 

 eighth generation. 



But enough for the present. We had seen a noble 

 day's sport, land made a notable bag, for seventy- 

 nine teal, sixty-three mallards, seven widgeon, four 

 shovellers, a pintail, and a " tame-flier," or barn-yard 

 duck, which had joined its wild relations, were 

 counted into the game-room. A better take had not 

 been known for some years. 



After mutual congratulations, we shook hands with 

 the jubilant decoy-man, promising to come again for 

 another look at his birds, and turned our steps 

 homeward, talking of gunnery and fowling as we 

 went. 



(To be continued.) 



A NEW BRITISH MOSS. 



Cinclidotus riparius (Walker Arnott). 



*' OEARCH has been repeatedly made without 

 vj success," says Wilson, for the moss whose 

 discovery in Great Britain it is now a pleasure to be 

 able to announce in these columns. 



The little river Teme, which winds its picturesque 

 way along part of the southern boundary of Shrop- 

 shire, and for some distance divides that county from 

 Herefordshire, here forming deep and silent pools, 

 there rippling lightly over the stony shallows, and 

 bedecked with water-weeds all so much alike to the 

 casual observer, but of such variety and interest to 

 the lover of nature, has at last delivered up to us the 

 little weed for which " search has been repeatedly 

 made without success." The fortunate finder is Mr. 

 Arther W. Weyman, of Ludlow, who collected it in 

 April last, and sent it to me recently, with other 

 specimens, for consultation. It was evident at once 

 that it differed from any British moss which one 

 could regard as allied to it ; and having a slight ac- 

 quaintance with Cinclidotus riparius, I concluded that 

 it must be that species. Dr. Braithwaite, Mr. J. E. 

 Bagnall, and Mr. H. Boswell have kindly looked at 

 it, and settled the question in the affirmative. Dr. 

 Braithwaite states that it was found two years ago 

 in Ireland, so that the present is not absolutely the 

 first record of the species for the United Kingdom. 

 A description of it with figures will duly appear in 

 the "Br. Moss Flora." 



The name Cinclidotus riparius is already some- 

 what familiar to us, as it occurs in Wilson, Berkeley, 

 Hobkirk's Synopsis, ed. 1873, &c., but only in con- 



nection with its assumed variety terrestris, now known 

 as Tortula mucronata, Barbula mucroitato, or B. 

 Brebissojii (Brid.). The true C. riparius is different 

 in habit, usually darker in colour, and larger. The 

 leaves are straight when dry, smooth (not papillose), 

 margins slightly thickened and plane (Fig. 28 a) ; 

 whereas in B. mucronata the leaves when dry, though 

 incumbent and only slightly twisted or bent inwards 

 on the lower parts of the stem, are much twisted at 

 the tips of the branches. They are strongly papillose, 

 the margins more thickened, and recurved. Some- 

 times the effect under the glass is that of a plane 



Fig. 28. 



Fig. 29. 



Fig. 30. 



margin with the whole of the thickening occurring 

 on the under side of the leaf, so as to give the appear- 

 ance of a recurved margin (Figs. 29 and 30 B). The 

 nerve is generally excurrent (Fig. 31 c), and the 

 areolce smaller. 



In some states the two mosses much resemble 

 each other. Wilson says: "Bruch and Schimper 

 positively affirm that they have witnessed the 

 existence of every intermediate form," and the writer 

 possesses specimens of each which are so much alike 

 that, failing the very minute investigation demanded 

 in the present day, they may easily be taken for the 

 same. But let the necessarily careful examination 

 be made, and the distinctions pointed out above are 



