ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 197 



Bryophyta. 

 (By A. Gepp.) 



British Muscinese. — A. R. Horwood * treats of the extinction of 

 numerous species of lichens, hepatics and mosses in Charnwood Forest 

 during the past 70 years, as a consequence of the disafforestation, drainage, 

 increasing smoke and gases from collieries and brick and pipe works, and 

 dust from quarries and cement works. The same thing is going on to 

 a less extent in many parts of England, and the author urges that a 

 competent investigation of the local cryptogamic floras should be made 

 before it is too late. A. Ley f gives a list of 62 mosses in his additions 

 to the flora of Herefordshire. They are rarer species and varieties, 

 and are either new to the county or recorded from new stations. 

 H. Whitehead^ records the luxuriant occurrence of Ricciella fluitans in 

 a pond on Golding's Hill during the autumn of 1906. The author 

 adds a few general remarks upon the habit and structure of the members 

 of Ricciaceae. 



New and Rare Scottish Mosses. §— J. Stirton gives an account of 

 some new and some rare mosses collected mostly at or near Arisaig in 

 the West of Scotland. The following 11 species and a variety are 

 described as new to science : — Dicranum leiophyllum, Trichostomum 

 episemum, Barbida Umosella, Schistidium nodulosum, Grimmia polita, 

 Rhacomitrium consocians, R. divergens, Bartramia subvirella, Pohlia 

 tenerrima, OUgotrichum exiguum, 0. hercynicum va,r. fastig latum, Hypnum 

 teichophyllum. All but the Hypnum and Dicranum are barren plants. 

 Among the rarities mentioned are fruiting specimens of Ulota phyllantha 

 and U. scotica ; of the former probably not more than a dozen capsules 

 had been previously found. It is remarkable that capsules of U. phyl- 

 lantha have never been found save when the plant grows intermingled 

 with U. Bruchii in a fertile state. Other rare species are Barbida 

 Umosa, B. exiguella, B. icmadophila, Hypnum corrugatulum, H. cana- 

 riense. 



Irish Muscineae.— D. McArdle|| publishes lists of 71 species and 

 varieties of mosses and 20 hepatics, collected on the island of Lambay, 

 which lies off Howth in Co. Dublin. These records are part of the 

 results obtained during 1905-6 from an organised attempt to determine 

 the natural history of the island. The rocky coast yielded an abundance 

 of material of a few genera ; the caves of the north shore were found to 

 be monopolised by a few appropriate species ; in the inland and marshes 

 were several species of Hypnum. A new variety of H. splendens is 

 plentiful in a rocky pasture. A great difference is revealed between the 

 hepatic flora of the island and that of the Hill of Howth. The same 

 author IT gives a list of 68 mosses and 4?> hepatics of Co. Mayo, collected 

 in a remote mountain district near Lough Corrib, the Finny River, etc. 



* Journ. of Bot., xlv. (1907) pp. 334-9. t Tom. cit., pp. 317-29. 



X Essex Naturalist, xiv. (1907) p. 276. 



§ Ann. Scot. Nat. Hist., No. 63 (1907) pp. 171-80. 



|| Irish Naturalist, xvi. (1907) pp. 99-104. % Tom. cit., pp. 332-7. 



