158 The Scottish Naturalist. 



by the late Rev. Dr C. Smith. It was subsequently found in 

 the locality in which we saw it in Skye, where it was detected 

 by the Rev. Dr Macmillan, and more recently in the Canary 

 Islands and Azores, during the voyage of the Challenger, by Mr 

 Moseley. In the Scottish stations it is barren, but in the more 

 southern ones fruit has been found. When first discovered, this 

 moss was supposed by the late Mr Wilson, with some doubt, to 

 be a form of Leucodon lagurus, a species which is found at Cape 

 Horn, and described by him under the title of var. borealis. 

 Subsequently, Dr Schimper created for its reception the genus 

 Myurium. From the peculiar distribution of this moss (in addi- 

 tion to other botanical evidence), Dr Stirton has suggested 

 (' Notes on the Fauna and Flora of the West of Scotland,' 

 p. xxix) that there may have been a land connection "along 

 the great mid-Atlantic ridge " by which this and other species 

 may have arrived at their present localities. Another moss 

 which we found at Loch Coruisk is the already mentioned 

 Glyphomitrium Daviesii. One beautiful lichen which occurred 

 on loose boulders has been referred to Umbilicaria pustulata, 

 but regarding it Dr Stirton will say something in another part of 

 this report. Of fungi no species were observed. 



Another day was spent on Ben Blabhein, a grand hill, resem- 

 bling in its characteristics the Coolins, and situated at the head 

 of Loch Slapan. As a whole, it was rather barren, as might 

 have been expected from the nature of the rock ; but one ravine 

 proved an exception, and was, in the higher plants at least, 

 rather rich. Amongst the cryptogams noticed here, was a pecu- 

 liar form of Polystichum lonchitis, differing from the usual form 

 in the much less spinulose margin of the pinnae. Amongst 

 other ferns found on this hill were Asplenium viride, in great 

 profusion ; A. trichomanes, with fronds eight or ten inches in 

 length; A. adiantum-nigrum ; a curious dwarf and slender form 

 of Lomaria spicant; Allosorus crispus, &c. Amongst mosses, 

 Glyphomitrium Daviesii again occurred, along with several others 

 not yet determined. Of Hepaticaa, Physotium cechleariforme 

 (seen also in abundance at Loch Coruisk) was one of the more 

 remarkable. Fungi were rare, but Dactylium modestum, B. and 

 Wh., parasitic on Akhemilla alpina, was in great abundance, and 

 a Pitccinia occurred on Oxyria, which may be P. polygonorum (as 

 suggested by Mr Berkeley), but which is certainly very distinct 

 from P. amphibii. No Pitccinia has, I believe, been before re- 

 corded as parasitic on Oxyria. 



