PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. 29 



high-road from the railway station, a little past the uppermost lock of the 

 canal. The leaves of this plant are of considerable size, being about twice 

 as large as those of a plant in my herbarium from Rampstead, collected 

 by Dr. J, Boswell Syme, and excepting that the leaves are glabrous, the 

 Marple plant appears to agree with the variety /3 majns, Hobkirk. The 

 most obvious character for determining this subspecies in the absence of 

 the flower or fruit, is the arrangement of nerves in the leaves, which are 

 arcuate, with the extremities. turned towards the midrib; in the two flrst- 

 named forms the nerves are arcuate in the opposite direction, i. e. they are 

 turned outwards. There is -one peculiarity in the venation of the Haw- 

 thorns, which is invariably overlooked by the draughtsman and engraver, 

 viz. the direction of the secondary nerves, which proceed from the midrib 

 to the base of each sinus ; such an arrangement is very rare, being found 

 only in some other species of Crut<e(jus, as C. Azarolns, etc., in species of 

 Fa(jus, and in a few other plants. Mr. Spencer H. Bickhant, jun., reported 

 the occurrence of Myosiirus minimus, L., in plenty at Yale Royal, near 

 Northwich, which species he believed had never previously been noticed 

 in the neighbourhood. 



Nov. Wlh, 1870.— R. Angus Smith, Ph.D., F.E.S., Vice-President, in 

 the cluiir. " Notes on the Botany of Mere, Cheshire," by George E. Hunt. 

 The border of Mere Mere has for long been a locality famous to the bota- 

 nists round Manchester, and T was led, in 1864, to commence a systematic 

 and continuous exploration of Mere, with the view of discovering as many 

 of the recorded Mosses as might still exist there. It may be of service to 

 other bryologists in the district to mention those which grow there at the 

 present date, and also the nature of soil they prefer. Phr/scumitrium 

 sphm-icum, found by Wilson in 1834, and recorded in the Bry. Brit. A 

 careful search, in 1864, led to the re-discovery of this species in very 

 minute quantity. In 1865 it was still more sparing (not above a dozen 

 capsules). 1866 was so exceedingly wet a season that the plant could 

 not have come up at all. 1867, it again occurred very sparingly. 18G8, 

 it was plentiful, but destroyed by the autumn rains before much of tlie 

 fruit had ripened. 1869, again frequent, and would have been plentiful 

 but the autumn rains again destroyed it whilst the fruit was even more 

 immature than in the preceding year. 1870, very plentiful, and abun- 

 dance of it has come to maturity. This Moss always grows on dried mud. 

 Phascum serratum ^ is frequent every autumn on clay and sandy banks at 

 Mere ; it occurs quite frequently in cornfields at Bowdon, in damp sea- 

 sons, coming up a few weeks after the corn has been cut. In cornfields 

 at Bowdon its companions are P. muticum, P. alter nifoUum, and Pottla 

 iruncata, and very rarely Trichodon cylmdricns — the latter never fruits in 

 this district. Phascum nitidum, frequent every autumn at Mere on clay 

 and sandy banks ; it occurs elsewhere about Bowdon on newly-cut ditph 

 banks. P. rostellatiim, on banks at Mere, with the two previous species, 

 but much more sparingly. It has also been found in Sussex by Mr. 

 Mitten, and was collected there again last year by Mr. Davies. It is one 

 of the rarest of all the British Mosses. P. sessile, very rare at Mere. I 

 collected it in the autumn of 18G9, and again in November, 1870, inter- 

 mixed very sparingly among P. serratum, from which it is difficult to 

 separate it except with the aid of the microscope. With this it can be at 

 once distinguished from tliat si)ecies by its longer, more rigid, almost en- 

 tire leaves, with a very wide nerve. P. serratum has no nerve, and the 



