62 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



[March I, 1868. 



ANOTHER NEW MOSS. 

 {JBypnum Bamberger*.) 



pvR. ERASER has again added a very interesting 

 -*-' species to our Moss Flora, and having had the 

 pleasure of his company in several botanical expe- 

 ditions in the Breadalbane mountains last summer, 

 I can bear witness to the untiring energy which 

 he devoted to the search for our little treasures. 

 Alpine botanizing is not always an agreeable pas- 

 time, for the poor bryologist may have to endure a 

 daily soaking by the dense fogs Avhich sometimes 

 for weeks envelope the mountain tops, and shut 

 everything from view ; now creeping to the edge of 

 some vast precipice he sees nothing, he hears no- 

 thing but the muffled plashing of the torrent hun- 

 dreds of feet below ; now clinging to the narrow 

 b 



Fig. 4". Hypntim Bambergeri. 



a. Plant, natural size. b. Branch, seen from above. 



c. Branch, seen laterally, d, d. Leaves, e. Leaf-base. 



ledges on the face of some towering rock, exposed 

 to the ceaseless drip from above, he must look well 

 to his foothold, or there is small prospect of his 

 ever travelling south again. But when it is fine 

 weather he is amply repaid ; the air so pure as to 

 be almost intoxicating, the clouds sailing at you 

 like huge tables supporting pyramids of whipped 

 cream ; at your feet an ocean of mountain peaks, 



disclosing here and there a glimpse of some silvery 

 loch, and backed by the cloud-capped cone of Ben 

 Nevis, with Cairngarm and Ben-Muir-Dhui, their 

 snowy crests gleaming with unearthly splendour. 



This last addition to our list was first discovered 

 by Bamberger on the Stockhorn, in Switzerland, 

 and afterwards by Sendtner on the Bavarian Alps. 

 M. Mitters detected it in Dr. Lyall's collecticn 

 from Beechey Island and Wellington Channel, and 

 named it Stereodon circularis, and Berggren found 

 it in the Dovrefjeld range in Norway. Dr. Erazer 

 gathered it near the summit of Ben Lawer on 

 July 27th, and his specimens agree perfectly with 

 Alpine ones from Dr. Pfeffer. Its range appears 

 to lie between 4,000 and 7,000 feet, and its position 

 will be between imponens and callichroum. 



Hypntjm (§ Drepanium) Bambergeri, Schimper. 

 — Dioicous in dense tufts, yellowish-green above, 

 passing to yellow-fuseous or rufescent at base. 

 Stem without radicles, subpinnate with a few fasti- 

 giate branches. Leaves densely crowded, secund 

 strongly circulate, ovato-lanceolate elongated, en- 

 tire, with a long acute point. Nerves two, faint ; 

 one usually longer than the other. Alar cells few, 

 rather obscure, yellow : upper ones linear, elongate, 

 pale. Fruit unknown, but female flowers are not 

 unfrequent. Prof. Schimper erroneously describes 

 the leaves as nerveless. 



R. Braitiiwaite, M.D., E.L.S. 



ANIMALS THAT NEVER DIE. 



YOUR correspondent asks (Science -Gossip, 

 Jan. 1, 1S6S) : "Will the reader be startled 

 •to hear that there are certain exceptions to the 

 uiikersal law of death— that there are animals, or 

 at any rate portions of animals, which are prac- 

 tically immortal ? Such, however, is really the 

 case. I allude to the species of the genera Nais 

 and Syllis." He then gives a short and inac- 

 curate report of the observations made upon the 

 fission or gemmation of these worms, and con- 

 cludes as follows : " Whether the process goes on 

 for ever .... of course no one can tell; but if 

 it docs — and there is no reason to suppose the con- 

 trary — then it is self-evident that the posterior 

 portion of one of these worms, is, as I observed 

 before, practically never-dying. It is simply fitted 

 every now and then with a new head ! " Now I 

 have no doubt many of your readers would be 

 startled by the above paragraph, and it must remind 

 them of certain attempts to solve the problem of 

 perpetual motion, which ought to satisfy others — 

 but, that, as Mr. Dick could never keep out King 

 Charles from his Memorials, so the impracticable 

 word if will crop up and stultify the results. The 

 process of prolification or gemmation in the 

 annelids is yet imperfectly worked out, but the 



