A WORD MORE ON THE " AGUE PLANT. 1G9 



taken up along with tin' II tnnn. This was a Chthono- 



blastns, Kiitz. (Microcoleus, Barvey), and was mosi probably the 

 same as Ch. (Brugineus, Kiitz. Jusl when' one of these algae 

 would be found it would not be very surprising to meel with the 

 other. Can this latter be chargeable with being the "cause of the 

 ague?' 1 It is wholly a differenl kind of alga from Hydrogastrnm, 

 without any point of homology or affinity therewith , except, perhaps, 

 their common love for the damp clayey substratum afforded by the 

 partial drying of the swamps, near which, unfortunately, from some 

 occult cause, the "ague" is prone to hover. 



ON TOETULA BREVIROSTRIS. (HOOK. AND GREV.) 

 By E. M. Holmes. 



While looking over some mosses, collected in the neighbourhood 

 of Buxton by my enthusiastic bryological friend Mr. E. George, 

 my attention was attracted by a specimen amongst them, evidently 

 belonging to the aloid group of the To?'tulce, but which had a very 

 short conical operculum, and upon further examination proved to 

 have synoicous flowers, and. therefore, to belong to T. brevirodri.<. 

 Hook, and Grev. Having reported the occurrence of this species 

 as a British species to ]\lr. Mitten, he kindly pointed out that it had 

 already been established as a British species, and as one new to 

 science, in " Brewster's Edin. Journ. of Science," vol. i., p. 289, 

 and that an excellent figure of it was given in the 2nd ed. of the 

 " Muse. Britt.," Suppl. tab. ii. 



The history of this interesting little moss is a curious one. It 

 appears to have been first collected in 1799 by Bwartz, by whom 

 specimens were sent to Messrs. Turner and Smith under the name 

 of T. rigida. His specimens were described by them, in 1804, asa 

 variety of T. rigida having a short operculum. In ]<x:M Drs. 

 Hooker and Greville having received specimens, which they con- 

 sidered to be identical with those of Swartz, from D. Stewart, Esq^., 

 collected on an old wall near Edinburgh, they established the moss 

 as a new species under the name of T. brevirostris, and described 

 and figured it in il Brewster's Edin. Journ. of Science." as above 

 quoted. It was afterwards described, and an excellent figure given 

 of it, in the 2nd ed. of the " Muscologia Britannica." Wilson, 

 however, omitted it from the " Bryologia Britannica,'* published in 

 1855, referring Stewart's specimens to T. rigida, Schnltz, and his 

 statement has hitherto passed unquestioned. 



Thinking, however, from the occurrence of this species in Derby- 

 shire that Wilson might possibly have been mistaken, and having 

 ascertained that Gre?ille's original specimens were in existence, I 

 obtained, through the courtesy of Mr. .1. Sadler, permission to 



