SOUTIi AFRICAN JIKl'ATiC.E. 435 



capcjisis from Port Elizabeth, and among' present-day collectors 

 are Professor Pearson, Sc.D., Mr. l^ole l-lvans, Miss Pegler, 

 Professor Bews, D.Sc, Mr. A. Reid, and Mr. Burtt-Davy. 



The literature dealing entirely or in part with, or having 

 an e(|ually important bearing on, South African species from a 

 e-ystematic standpoint, forms a very long list, mostly in Latin, 

 French, or (lerman, and is very scattered and difficult to obtain 

 or even consult in South Africa. 



No monograph of the South African species has yet 

 appeared, and even in regard to South African genera only two 

 synoptical lists have appeared, 7'/r. : ( i ) that in Harvey's 

 "Genera of South African I'lants," first edition (1838), in 

 which five genera arc given : and ( 2 ) that by Diels in Marloth's 

 '' Flora of South Africa '" ( KJ13). in which 39 genera are given, 

 said bv Stephani to include 104 ."""outh African species. 



But in regard to the structure and relationships of the 

 Bryophyta (including- South African Hepatic?e) three recent 

 works stand out pre-eminently, 7 /,c'., " Mosses and Ferns," by 

 Campbell (iSg;); " ( )rganogra])hy of Plants," Part II (1905), 

 by (joebel ; and " The Interrelationships of the Bryophyta." by 

 Cavers ( kji i ). 



In dealing with the South African Hcpatica?, it is also 

 necessary to keep in view the enormous amount of systematic 

 work done by European botanists upon Hepaticae from Central 

 Africa, Madagascar, and the Mascarenes, published also in ex- 

 ceedingly scattered form, since the floras of these localities and 

 of South Africa overlaj) in regard to ever}' large group, and 

 prol)ably also in regard to species, to a greater extent than is 

 yet known. 



Through the great kindness of almost every botanist in 

 South Africa and several elsewhere, I have been able to con- 

 sult much of the literature mentioned above, and the list 

 attached hereto re])resents tlie records and speciniens which 

 have come under mv notice, boiled down in so far as synonymy 

 is ccjuccrned as far as i^resent mfoimation will allow. These 

 and all further materials arc being used in the jM^eparation I 

 have in hand of a " Handbook of South African Bryophyta," 

 for which purpose I invite the aid of every collector, in the 

 form of s])ecimens from his oAvn district, of mosses and 

 He]:)atic<e. however common. The common species of one dis- 

 trict are often the rare species in another district, and it is only 

 by collating specimens from many collectors and from many 

 localities that the distribution of each species can be decided. 



Ill my own herbarium, collected throughout South Africa 

 during the past 26 vears, T fin(l specimens of most of those 

 recorded by others, as well as additional species, and have no 

 doubt but that many further .species still remain undetected, 

 especiall\' in the Northern portions of oiu" area. Every collector 

 consequently stands a fair chance of sending in new species, 

 besides extending our knowledge of the distribution and local 

 variation of species. 



