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THE MOSSES OF LORD HOWE ISLAND. 

 By Dr. V. F. Brotherus and the Rev. W. Walter Watts. 



Introductory Notes by Rev. W. W. Watts. 



At the beginning of July, 1911, I started on a health-trip to 

 Lord Howe Island, and it was not until towards the end of 

 August that I again saw Sydney. Seven weeks was I privileged 

 to spend on the far-famed island, experiencing much kindness 

 from the hospitable residents, and collecting Ferns, Mosses, and 

 Hepatics from almost every accessible part of this beauty-spot of 

 the near Pacific. 



The Ferns of the Island have been dealt with in these Pro- 

 ceedings (1912, xxxvii., p. 395, and 1914, xxxix, p. 257); and the 

 Hepatics in a paper on " Hepaticse Australes," in the Journ. 

 Proc. Roy. Soc. N. S. Wales, xlviii. (1914), p.94. 



The present paper deals with the Mosses of the Island, which 

 I collected somewhat exhaustively, though there are some 

 localities which I was unable to visit. 



From the bryologist's point of view, the most interesting part 

 of Lord Howe is the southern end, where the Island attains its 

 greatest width (nearly two miles), and where the twin mountains, 

 Lidgbird and Gower, lift their impressive heads, the former to 

 2,504 feet, and the latter to 2,840 feet. These mountains, fie- 

 quently "cloud-capped," are separated by the deep cleft of 

 Erskine Valley, where many cryptogamic treasures probably yet 

 remain for discovery. The top of Mt. Gower is a veritable para- 

 dise of plant-life — one of Nature's Botanic Gardens, consisting 

 of some 120 acres of rich scrub-land, intersected by gullies that 

 run always towards the north, and, on its southern edge, dropping 

 almost sheer into the ocean. 



Here, on this rich plateau, may be found fern after fern, and 

 moss after moss, that occur nowhere else in the world. I was 

 fortunate enough to add to the number of the indigenous mosses 



