338 LEONAED PLUKENET. 



(also in the British Museum), nor in that ot Mr. Jenner, now in 

 the possession of Mr. C. P. Smith of Brighton. That gentleman 

 informs me that Jenner' s i^lant was identified by Mr. Mitten. Mr. 

 Mitten kindly referred me to his paper, above cited, and tells me 

 that Mr. Jenner gathered the moss during an extended ramble, but 

 whether in Sussex, Hampshire, Kent, or Surrey, it could only be 

 conjectured, as the large packet of mosses among which the specimen 

 was detected by Mr. Mitten bore no label, and the only clue to the 

 locality where it was gathered lay in the fact that the Zygodon 

 Forsteri was wi'apped in a billhead with a Hastings address upon it. 



Until a few years ago, therefore, when Miss I. Gifford found the 

 plant at Minehead, no exact locality was known in Britain for this 

 species. In the locality pointed out to me by that lady the moss 

 grew on the top of an old stump behind a gate in a field, and bore 

 some resemblance to a Pottia, for which it was at first mistaken by 

 Miss Gifford, being subsequently recognised by Mr. H. Boswell, of 

 Oxford, to whom she sent it. 



I found the moss in Epping Forest on the root of an old tree 

 where water collects in little depressions among the roots. It seems 

 to prefer damp timber ; in size and habit of growth it resembles 

 Tortilla muralis, for which it might easily be mistaken if the short 

 seta and furrowed capsule were not noticed. Neither at Minehead 

 nor in Epping Forest did I see more than a single patch, so that it 

 does not appear to be a gregarious species like Z. viridissimus and 

 Z. conoideus. The leaves in the moist state are remarkable for their 

 rigid, dark green, succulent appearance. On the Continent also this 

 plant appears to be a rare southern species. It has been found 

 growing on the poplar, cork, oak, holly and elm. I did not 

 notice on what tree it occurred in Epping Forest, but believe it to 

 have been beech. 



LEONAED PLUKENET, -QUEEN'S BOTANIST." 

 By B. Daydon Jackson, Sec. Linn. Soc. 



Very little of the life-history of Leonard Plukenet is known to 

 the botanic world, although nearly every page of Linnaeus's 

 ' Species Plantarum' refers to some one or other of his works. I 

 am indebted to the kindness of Mr. T. 0. Noble, who is engaged in 

 a thorough search through the registers of the parish of St. 

 Margaret's, Westminster, for a very large number of entries 

 extracted therefrom, by means of which a great deal of fresh 

 information is afforded regarding our author. With the hitherto- 

 unpublished material, I shall incorporate some that has long been 

 common property, so as to exhibit, as far as the present occasion 

 serves, a fairly complete account of the man. 



The portrait of Plukenet which is prefixed to his * Phyto- 

 graphia,' 1G9G, has this legend :—" Leonardi Plukenett, D.M., 

 Effigies, netat. sure, -48 Anno Dom. 1690." From this inscription 

 Sir J. E. Smith, in his article on Plukenet in Rees's ' Cyclopaedia,' 



