1 8 . . ;...: The Irish Naturalist. February, 



IRISH SPHAGNA. 



BY WILLIAM A. LEE. 



When the late Canon Lett read his Census Report on the 

 Mosses of Ireland before the Royal Irish Academy in 1914 

 his list of Sphagna, named chiefly with reference to Dr. 

 Braithwaite's " Sphagnaceae of Europe and North America," 

 included, in all, 42 species and varieties. Since that time 

 there has been much controversy as to classification and 

 nomenclature in this group, which even yet is not ended. 

 The practical field-worker has the choice of. retaining the 

 older nomenclature, with the disadvantage of hearing 

 disparagements from competent systematists as to the 

 usefulness of his lists, or he may accept a more recent 

 system with the closer application and more minute study 

 which its use involves. In a paper read before the Liverpool 

 Botanical Society in 1917, Mr. J. A. Wheldon, f.l.s., gave 

 a valuable contribution on the " Collection, Taxonomy, 

 and Ecology of the Sphagna," which was afterwards ex- 

 tended and reprinted from the Lancashire and Cheshire 

 Naturalist in March, 1918. The attitude of this experienced 

 sphagnologist is embodied in a brief quotation here given, 

 which probably expresses the views of many other workers 

 in the same group : — " The numerous forms and varieties 

 recognised by Continental sphagnologists were regarded 

 with disfavour for a long time in this country (England), 

 and even now only receive tardy and partial recognition. 

 I hold no brief for the defence of the Warnstorfian systeni ; 

 it has some defects and many inconsistencies. But, like 

 the Linnean system of classifying Flowering Plants, it is 

 of practical utility, and provides a niche and a name for 

 the vast number of forms that are met with. It is therefore, 

 a useful starting point from which a more perfect system 

 eventually may be evolved when the true affinities and 

 range of variation in species are better understood." The 

 Synopsis of the European Sphagna, compiled for the Moss 

 Exchange Club by Mr. Wheldon, contains a number of 

 Irish records ; but so far as can be ascertained no separate 



