92 RECENT ADDITIONS TO OUR MOSS FLORA, 



object for which it is established — " the practical study of natural 

 history and science in all its branches " — be carried out. 



It is intended to establish a museum and library in connection with 

 the Society, donations to each of which are acknowledged in the report 

 for 1869. A prize is offered for the best herbarium, collected between 

 March and December, 1870. 



The annual subscriptioa is five siiitlings. No publications have 

 been at present issued by the Club, except the brief report for 1869, 

 to which we have above referred. The Treasurer's report shows a 

 considerable balance in favour of the Society. 



James Britten. 



EECENT ADDITIONS TO OUE MOSS PLOEA. 



By E. Bratihwaite, M.D., F.L.3. 



I. 



Few departments of the British flora can show so marked an increase 

 in the list of species as that of Bryology, for in the interval of fifteen 

 years since the publication of Wilson's classical ' Bryologia Britannica,' 

 their number has been extended from 446 to 560, and this may be at- 

 tributed, not only to an increase in the number of active collectors and 

 students, but also to the much extended use of the microscope, and the 

 greater attention paid to minute structural differences. 



Besides our great English teachers Wilson and Mitten, the names of 

 Schimper, Carl Miiller, De Notaris, Lindberg, Hampe, Milde, Molendo, 

 and Juratzka, are well known as those of authors and collectors who 

 are coastantly extending our knowledge of continental Mosses, and 

 thus stimulating the search for, and discovery of, iiew ones in this 

 country. 



The short specific characters of the older bryological writers are 

 often insufficient for the certain identification of species, and the haste 

 to name new discoveries, or to supersede the established nomenclature 

 for trivial reasons, coupled with the changes in generic names conse- 

 quent upon the different opinions of authors, have so burdened the 

 nomenclature of Mosses with synonyms, as to render their study quite 

 discouraging to a beginner. 



The magnificent ' Bryologia Europfea ' of Prof. Schimper first gave 

 us an idea of the extent to which some of the old genera might be 



