142 THE JOUPtKAL OF BOTANY 



,giganieum in Hungerforcl Marsh, a relic of the prhiieval morass, 

 the drainmg of which has reduced it to a small and impoverished 

 condition, while interesting hepatics are the rare Crystalwort Hiccia 

 hifurca found on rides in Chisbmy and Bedwjn Brails Woods, 

 R. commutata, rather plentiful in a stubble field near Froxfield, it is 

 a plant of comparatively recent introduction to the British hepatic 

 fiora, 3Iarsupella Funckii forming blackish-brown tufts on a ride in 

 Cobliam Frith Wood, and the rare CephalozieUa Limprichtii grow- 

 ing on bare soil in Tottenham Park and Bedwjn Brails Wood. I paid 

 a visit to a sarsen-strewn valley in West Woods, near Marlborough, 

 hoping to find some of the aberrant sarsen-stone mosses which form 

 such a conspicuous and interesting feature of the moss flora of the 

 chalk-down valleys in the neighbourhood, but in this I was disap- 

 pointed, for the sarsen stones were covered with a dense growth of 

 Bri/itm capillare, Hypnum cupressiforme, and other common species, 

 and with the exception of a little Grinimia triclwphyUa, the sarsen- 

 stone species were conspicuous by their absence ; Mr. Dixon wrote : — 

 " I surmise that the special sarsen-stone species are rather markedly 

 xerophytic and get a hold on stones in the open where other mosses 

 find it difficult to live, but that in the wooded valley you refer to 

 there is more shade or moisture, so that tliese commoner species have 

 got their footing and excluded the Grimmiacese, etc. But this is 

 rather guess-work." The following twenty-nine mosses, which are 

 generally uncommon or rare wdth capsules, I have found fruiting 

 around Great Bedw^^n : — Campylopvs Jiecciiosiis, Barhvla Ilorn- 

 schi(chiana, Zygodon viridissimus, Orthotrichum Lyellii, Philonoiis 

 fonfana (a single capsule), Wehra annotina^ Bryum pallens, 2^. 

 pseudo-triqitetnim, Mni^nn qffine vnr. elatum (a single seta), Nec- 

 kera pumila, JV. complanata, Pierogonium gracile, Thnidiiim tama- 

 rind uum, Brnchylhecium albicans, H. rivulare, J3. illecehmm, 

 B. purum, Eurhynchium speciosum, E. Sicartzii, E. inimiJum, 

 Plagiofhecium silvaticum, AmWysiegium Kochii, A. Jilicinum, 

 Hypnum stellatum var. profensiimy H. Jliiitans var. gracile (two 

 capsules), H. cordifoliiim^ H. ^chreheri, Hylocomivm splendens, 

 and 11. sqiiarrosum. Mr. Nicholson writes : — " The list of fruiting- 

 mosses which you send me is no doubt a ver}^ good one for a limited 

 locality, but I am inclined to think it bears more testimony to ^^our 

 careful search than to any very exceptional conditions in 3'our 

 district ; I have found all but four fruiting in Sussex, and I think all 

 somewhere. No doubt warmth assists some of the distinctly southern 

 species to fruit, such as Zygodon viridissimus^ Barhula IlornscJui- 

 chiana, and Pferogonium gracile, which are abundant and fruit 

 freelv in the Meditei-ranean region, but most of your plants are 

 rather northern, and a suitable degree of humidity is perhaps the 

 most essential condition." The Census Catalogues of British Classes 

 (1907) and Hepatics (1913) have been followed in recording the 

 following plants, and my best thanks are due to Messrs. H. N. Dixon, 

 W. Ingram, H. H. Knight, W. E. Nicholson, and J. A. Wheldon 

 for interesting notes and much kind assistance in identification ; 

 Mr. Nicholson's letters regardmg the rare Chisbury Wood Fossom- 

 Ironia Crozalsii and Husnoti var. anglica are. especially, of ver}^ 



