46 The Irish Nakirahst. May, 



The other is labelled " Porotrichum angustifolium Dixon, 

 Glen — — , Ireland, 1898 c[oll.] J. Shepley." Most unfor- 

 tunately the name of the locality is illegible, which may 

 be due to Tetlow's hand, or possibly to his having been 

 unable to decipher Shepley's writing. It looks like Glenlive. 

 Mr. Broome suggests Glenaline (a mountain in Fermanagh) 

 as being the nearest to the word as written. But I must 

 confess to a difficulty in accepting this solution. The 

 word might be Glenaline, but I think it might quite as well 

 be something else ; and there is no reason whatever to 

 suppose that Shepley was ever in Fermanagh. The fact 

 that these two mosses are, as I understand, the only two 

 Irish specimens of Shepley's collecting in the herbarium, 

 and both collected at the same date, suggests very strongly 

 that they were both collected somewhere at least in the 

 same district, i.e., near Glenariff, in Antrim. Glenarm, 

 Glendun and Glenaan are the only names of this type with 

 which I am acquainted in that neighbourhood, and none 

 of these fits the script. It is possible that it may be a 

 name of only local importance, but I am inclined to think 

 that the word as written may quite probably be considerably 

 altered from the original, whatever it was. 



The plant is perfectly correct ; there is only a single 

 stem, but it is in quite good condition, and characteristic. 

 It occurred to me as a possibility that the specimen might 

 be a Derbyshire one given to Tetlow by \Vhitehead, and 

 attributed to Shepley by an error ; but Mr. Broome thinks 

 this most improbable ; there are no other specimens of the 

 Derbyshire plant in Tetlow's collection from which it might 

 have been taken ; and there is every evidence of care in 

 the herbarium of labelling, &c. I may add to this that 

 the habit of vShepley's plant is slightly different from any 

 of the gatherings I have seen from Derbyshire, being in 

 fact somewhat better developed and more dendroid in 

 habit, with a firmer -main stem. 



All things considered, I think the evidence is strongly 

 in favour of an Irish origin for the specimen ; probably in 

 Antrim in the neighbourhood of Glenariff. The Derbyshire 

 station is a distinctly calcareous one, but as P. alopecitrum 

 is found on both calcareous and non-calcareous rocks, it 



