192 Mr. R. Spruce on the Musci and Hepaticae of Teesdale. 



especially by Mr. Robertson and the late Rev. J. Harriman ; but if 

 we consult the descriptions of Musci and Hepatica in the same vo- 

 lume, we shall find only a single species (the Gymnostomum Doni- 

 anum of Smith) recorded to grow in Teesdale ! Even Baines's 

 * Yorkshire Flora ' contains only four Teesdale mosses, of which 

 the one above mentioned is the only rare species. In order to 

 decide whether this lack of bryological intelligence relative to a 

 tract of country of such promising aspect arose from its real 

 poverty in objects of that class, or, as was more probable, from 

 its having never been properly explored, I have devoted nearly 

 three weeks during the past summer to a careful examination of 

 what is called Upper Teesdale, viz. that portion of the vale of the 

 Tees which lies above Middleton in Teesdale ; at the same time 

 exploring, but less minutely, the district between Middleton and 

 Barnard Castle, extending in a contrary direction. As I antici- 

 pated, Teesdale has proved not less rich in mosses than in flow- 

 ering-plants and ferns; for besides ascertaining it to produce 

 many of the rarest mosses previously known as British, I have 

 had the pleasure of discovering six species quite new to our 

 islands; these are Bartramia calcarea (Bruch and Schpr.), Bryum 

 acuminatum (Bruch and Schpr.), Br. ohconicum (Hornsch.), Br, 

 pallescens (Schwsegr.), Orthotrichum stramineum (Hornsch.), and 

 Hypnum confervoides (Brid.) . Other mosses will be found in the 

 following list, not previously described in any work on British 

 bryology, but in the discovery of which I have been anticipated 

 by other botanists. Amongst the Hepaticce, though few species 

 fructify in the summer months, and the search is consequently 

 prosecuted with diminished interest, I have met with considerable 

 success. A Jungermannia, originally discovered near Bantry by 

 Miss Hutchins, and called at first by Hooker /. Bantriensis, but 

 afterwards referred by him to /. bidentata as a variety, I have, by 

 finding it with male and female fructification, demonstrated to 

 be a very distinct species. 



What is above stated will suffice to show that few districts 

 rival Teesdale in their bryological productions ; in fact it wants 

 only wood, in which it is remarkably deficient, to render it equal 

 to any in the British isles *. Cromaglown, near Killarney, is the 

 only locality I have seen superior to it : in that Paradise of mosses 

 every rock is moss-clad, mosses drink the spray of every little 

 waterfall, and the trunk of almost every tree is so thickly begirt 

 with mosses as to appear of double its real diameter ! Teesdale 

 can show nothing like this ; but the rocky banks of its wild river 



♦ The few trees which exist in Upper Teesdale produce some mosses of 

 such real excellence, that one may well be allowed to regret the destruction 

 of the forests which tradition reports to have once extended over the whole 

 of that region. 



