CAREX HELVOLA, BLYTT, ON BEN LAWERS 241 



Lawers. It must also be borne in mind that the two 

 assumed parents of the latter plant are also associated on 

 Loch-na-gar, where lagopina [Lachenalii) grows. This I 

 gathered in 1899. To hint at want of faith in the correct- 

 ness of the suggested names of the parents of some critical 

 forms would (in these days when any plant off type is 

 named, by some botanists, a hybrid) put oneself outside the 

 scientific pale. In some cases, however, much faith is re- 

 quired — faith, we are told, is an evidence of things not seen. 



NEW AND RARE MOSSES FROM THE WEST 



OF SCOTLAND. 



By James Stirton, M.D. 

 {Conti7med from p. 173.) 



Mollia subbifaria, n.sp. — In dense, somewhat extended, 

 convex tufts, of a bright green colour above, white in a 

 narrow belt just below, pale downwards to the base or with 

 slight dashes of red throughout ; stems pale from a half to 

 an inch in length, simple or dichotomously divided, slender ; 

 leaves rather closely set and clasping somewhat, showing 

 almost always a bifarious disposition around the stem, long, 

 nearly oblong, with a blunt rounded summit where the 

 pagina of each side ends abruptly and roundly on the nerve 

 or in many cases quite round and semicircular, acumen short 

 and triangular in outline (length .025-.045 mm.) in com- 

 position as in the others, but shewing only from one to five 

 longish cells in a clear homogeneous matrix, or awanting 

 entirely, when the apex is quite round and often somewhat 

 cucullate ; nerve pale, latit. near base, .07-. i mm., tapering 

 and ending in the apex or ceasing below it, smooth and 

 prominent behind ; cells at base hyaline, large, occupying 

 nearly the lower half of leaf, oblong attached, .06 5 -.09 by 

 .01 -.01 4 mm. sloping up towards margin as in M. tortuosa, 

 upper cells hexagonal or merely roundish, mostly with clear 

 narrow interspaces, .009-.013 mm., in longer diam. In 

 1907, near the sea at Keppoch close to Arisaig. 



Since the discovery of this moss I have considerable 

 72 E 



