4 CENSUS MUSCORUM AUSTRALIEXSIUM, 



Sydney; Mr. Wm. Bauerlen, of the same institution; Mr. Jas. 

 Stirling, late Government Geologist of Victoria; Mr. W. A. 

 Weymouth, and others. Mr. Reader was the first to respond to 

 our application for assistance by sending a list of all the records 

 known to him, thus rendering valuable service from the Victarian 

 side. Mr. Luehmann very kindly supplied a list of the records 

 in the Melbourne Herbarium, which, though containing no details 

 of localities, etc., gave the States in which the species had been 

 collected, confirming many of the records in our possession and 

 adding others. At the eleventh hour a valuable list arrived 

 from Mr. Stirling, who was absent in London when our applica- 

 tion for assistance reached Melbourne. Mr. Stirling has "for 

 many years collected specimens of the plants growing all over the 

 Australian Alps, from Mt. Baw Baw at the heads of the Yarra, 

 to Mt. Kosciusko," and during the years 1880-88 he "made 

 several collections of the cryptogamic florula of the highest 

 elevations," being accompanied on one of these excursions to Mt. 

 Kosciusko by Mr. D. Sullivan, of Moysten, since deceased. 

 Acknowledgment should also be made of the assistance received 

 from the Librarian and Assistant Librarian of the Public Library, 

 Sydney, by whom some valuable Papers, not previously known to 

 us, were brought within our reach. 



Systems of classification in bryology have varied greatly. Dr. 

 Mueller adhered throughout to his principle of " centralisation," 

 grouping the mosses of the world under large and bold generali- 

 sations. A principle of "decentralisation," represented in Jaeger 

 and Sauerbeck's 'Adumbratio,' has reigned for many years among 

 Continental bryologists, including Dr. Brotherus. Mitten 

 followed a scheme of his own, a scheme which, through the 

 influence of his Catalogue of Australian Mosses, has been in force, 

 for the most part, in this country. Dr. Brotherus, in his 

 ' Bryales ' — a master work. Part i. of which has been received — 

 departs greatly from Jaeger's system, and follows an independent 

 course that brings him, to some extent, into line with Mitten. 



We have adopted the following scheme, based upon many con- 

 siderations, but in large part upon Mr. H. N. Dixon's invaluable 



