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EECENT ADDITIONS TO THE MOSS-FLOKA OF THE 



WEST BIDING OF YOEKSHIRE. 



By Chaeles P. Hobkirk, F.L.S. 



[Read before Sect. D., British Associatioa, Sheffield, 25 Aug., 1879.] 

 In the year 1878 I read before the British Association at 

 Bradford a short paper on the Mosses of the West Riding, 

 ai^pended to which was a list comjprising 294 sj)ecies/'' Since 

 that date considerable activity has been manifested, by both 

 Natural History Societies and private investigators, in working 

 out, more thoroughly than had hitherto been done, the flora and 

 fauna of this large county. In a great measure this activity has 

 been due to the union of the chief Natural History Societies of the 

 county into an amalgamated Society, now called " The Yorkshire 

 Naturalists' Union." This Society holds meetings and makes 

 excursions monthly during the summer ; having its sections and 

 sectional officers, meeting immediately after each excursion, and 

 examining the gatherings of the day ; followed by the general 

 meeting, to which the sectional officers report the chief results 

 brought before them. Every species gathered is also recorded by 

 the sectional recorder, and each section publishes the results of its 

 labours in the 'Transactions' of the Union. In this manner a 

 great many new species, both of animals and plants, have been 

 discovered, and old records either confirmed or corrected. It 

 seemed therefore that this, the first meeting of the British Associ- 

 ation in this county since the Bradford Meeting in 1878, presented 

 a fitting opportunity for announcing what additions and corrections 

 had been made to the list of Mosses previously referred to. 



In my paper I stated that the Valleys of the Don and the 

 Dearne, including the moorlands south of Penistone, and the 

 districts around Barnsley, Askern, Thorne, Doncaster, Groole, 

 Eotherham, and Sheffield, were, in a bryological point of view, 

 almost virgin ground. These portions of the county have now 

 been visited by the Union, and to a certain extent their botanical 

 productions have been investigated and published by them in the 

 * Naturalist ' and the Union ' Transactions.' 



Further research has also shown that the divisions I made in 

 that paper of the river-basins of the Biding could be advantageously 

 modified ; and in place of the eight divisions I then proposed, we 

 now recognise ten, viz., proceeding from N.W. to S.E., the Lune, 

 Ribble, Ure, Nidd, Wharfe, Aire, Colne with Calder, Mersey, Don 

 with Dearne, and Trent tributaries. These are the divisions 

 published in Messrs. Davies and Lees' ' West Yorkshire ' with 

 which Mr. Lees issued a map showing their respective boundaries, 

 and giving in a note their approximate areas. Of these the 

 Mersey, containing about 30 square miles, and the Trent, about 50 

 square miles, are the smallest ; and the Wharfe, 470 square miles, 

 and the Don, 600 square miles, are the largest. 



* Printed at length in ' Journ. Bot.,' 1873, pp. 327, 358. 



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