170 ON TORTULA BREVIROSTRIS. 



examine the original specimen from which the drawings in the 

 " Mnscologia " and " Brewster's Journal " were taken. 



The packet I received was labelled on the outside, in Dr. 

 Greville's handwriting, " T. brevirostris," and contained two 

 smaller packets, one of which had Dr. Greville's original drawing- 

 inside, and was labelled outside, " T. brevirostris, on an old wall 

 opposite Parson's Green, Edinburgh, D. Stewart, Esq.;" and the 

 other was labelled also, in Dr. Greville's handwriting, " T. breviros- 

 tris" but was marked inside " T. rigida, Jackdaw Crag, Durham, 

 E. Spruce." 



The specimen from Parson's Green consisted of a few immature 

 seta3, one of which only was sufficiently advanced to show the 

 short operculum. On this one I found synoicous flowers, which 

 proved it to be the right species, and not T. rigida, Schultz, as stated 

 by Wilson. 



The specimens in the other packet from Spruce were T. rigida, 

 Schultz, having dioicous inflorescence. The operculum was, how- 

 ever, rather shorter than usual in that species, which probably led 

 Dr. Greville (to whom the synoicous inflorescence of T. brevirostris 

 was not then known) to label it " T. brevirostris." 



Hence it is probable that Wilson, owing to the meagreness of 

 the specimen from Parson's Green, did not examine it, and taking 

 for granted that the other specimen from Jackdaw Crag was 

 rightly named by Dr. Greville as T. brevirostris, and, therefore, 

 identical with the Parson's Green specimen, referred them both to 

 T. rigida, Schultz. The honour of separating T. brevirostris as a 

 distinct species, and of discovering it as a native of Britain, is, 

 therefore, due to Drs. Hooker and Greville. 



The description given in " Brewster's Journal," and in the 2nd 

 ed. of the " Muscologia," states that the operculum is half the 

 length of the capsule ; while Br. and Schimper, in the " Bry Eur.," 

 state that it is only one-third the length of the capsule. The plate 

 in the " Muscologia " does not, however, correspond with the 

 description in the text, the figure being excellent, and representing 

 the lid as less than one-third the length of the capsule. The 

 figure was drawn, as above stated, from the Parson's Green speci- 

 men, which accounts for its correctness; the description may, how- 

 ever, have been modified by the remembrance of the supposed T. 

 brevirostris from Jackdaw Crag. 



The character of the Derbyshire specimens, which agree well 

 with the figure in " Muscologia," may be thus expressed : — 



Tortula brevirostris, Hook, and Grev. Plants small, subgemmi- 

 form, in scattered patches ; lower leaves roundish, ovate, obtuse, upper 

 leaves Ungulate ; nerve thin ; seta reddish, about J inch long ; 

 capsule elliptical ; lid obliquely conical, \ the length of the cap- 

 sule ; annulus broadish ; teeth of the peristome twice twisted. 



For the purpose of easily distinguishing the allied species, the 

 following arrangement may perhaps be found useful : — 



