The Scottish Naturalist. 381 



NOTES ON MOSSES OP THE NOKTH OF SCOTLAND. 



By Mrs. FARQUHARSON of Haughton, F.R.M.S. 



HEARING that remarks on the mosses of the North of Scot- 

 land might be of interest at the Annual General Meeting 

 of the East of Scotland Union of Naturalists' Societies, I offer a few- 

 extracts from notes made during various rambles in search of speci- 

 mens in the Eastern parts of the counties of Ross, Inverness, and 

 Aberdeen ; and also on specimens from the Herbaria of botanists 

 who have collected in the counties of Caithness, Forfar, and Perth. 

 By way of illustrating the subject, I send mounted mosses from the 

 Herbarium which I hope shortly to have the pleasure of presenting 

 to the new museum in Aberdeen. 



The great charm universally acknowledged in mosses is their 

 evergreen existence, rendering them especially dear to botanists in 

 this Northern climate ; where for considerably more than half the year 

 they are the chief, if not the only, branch of botany that can be pro- 

 fitably studied. Who does not readily call to mind the charming 

 effect of the Orthotrichums emerging from the snow-tipped dykes 

 their freshened foilage rendered far more conspicuous than in the 

 more genial but drier weather, when they often present a weathered 

 appearance ? Aberdeenshire has some of the rarest of this genus 

 in Orthotrichum Drummondii (Ulota Drummondii Grev.) and 

 Orthotrichum rivulare. The Andreceas are also well represented 

 in this county, the rarest species perhaps being A. nivalis. There 

 is also a good number of species of Grimmia, one of the rarest 

 being G. contorta. Dicranella squarrosa, rare in fruit, was found 

 by the Rev. T. Bell in a remarkably fine state. Philonotis fontana> 

 also found by the Rev. T. Bell in Keig, is also rare in fruit. 



Inverness-shire I found one of the most productive moss-haunts. 

 On the south side of Loch Laggan I was fortunate in finding the 

 very rare Hypnum callichroum in fruit, and near it, also in fruit, 

 Hypnum crista-castrensis. 



Among the other rarieties from the same locality, I may mention 

 Hypnum squarrosum in abundant fruit, Antitrichia curtipendula 

 and Philonotis adpressa, not in fruit, and at a higher elevation. 



Near Alness in Ross-shire, Hypnum revolvens was the most 

 noticeable moss. 



