ILFRACOMBE MOSSES AND IIEPATICS 121 



or very rarely ; and it is not the stout mucro of Z. Stlrtoniy — 

 Z. Stirtoni Schp. Kather common on rock-faces in and around 

 llfracombe, growing on Lantern Hill (where I found capsules) and 

 on Capstone Parade ; it also fruits on a rocky roadside near Hele, 

 close to llfracombe, the capsules are i*arely produced. I noticed a 

 form with markedly recurved leaves near Score ; of a plant that occurred 

 on a rock-face near Torrs Park Poad Mr. Dixon wrote: — '*I should 

 refer your Zygodoii to Z. Stirtoni-, the better developed leaves have 

 distinctly that apex ; but there are a great many with quite the 

 normal apex of viridissimiis. It is a good illustration of the poor 

 title Z. Stirtoni has to specific I'ank." 



JJlota crispa Brid. Not uncommon on trees around llfracombe, 

 producing capsules freely. Mr. Knight writes : — " I have always 

 had considerable difficulty in distinguishing between TI. crispa and 

 Z7. Briichii, unless one finds them in good conditions, with capsules 

 just ripe and immediately after the fall of the lid. In Grloucester- 

 shire, where they are scarce, it is difficult to find Tllota in good 

 condition, and you never know when to get ripe fruit in a dry climate 

 like we have here. I have found plants with full-grown but unripe 

 capsules as late as January. In JJ . Bruchii the capsule is con- 

 tracted at the mouth and in TI. crispa it is contracted below the 

 mouth. — U. phyllantha Brid. Not uncommon on trees around 

 llfracombe ; in Torr's Park Road and in the Lee Valley and very fine 

 on trees near the Watermouth Caves. 



Ortliotrichum Lyellii Hook. & Tayl. Scarce on trees near 

 llfracombe, where the genus is very poorly represented. 



Schistostega osmundacea Mohr.* In rabbit-holes near North 

 Moulton ; Mr. Hiern writes : — " >S^. osmundacea grows in the S.W. 

 bank of the road, in the parish of Arlington, about a furlong (say, 

 200 metres) from the guide-post at White Cawsey, towards Arlington, 

 at altitude about 260 metres. Another station is just in the parish 

 of Morte-hoe on the confines of Georgeham parish, in the old disused 

 Spreacombe iron mine, about 120 metres altitude, about 4 miles from 

 Bmunton and rather more than 2 miles from Morte-hoe railway 

 station." The moss was accidentally discovered in this locality by 

 Mr. E. Vidal in 1906 while geologizing ; it grows plentifully with the 

 hepatics Calypogeia arguta and Diplopliyllum albicans on the sides 

 and floor of a cave in Devonian Sandstone, which the highly refractive 

 protonema illumines with an exquisitely lovely soft golden green light. 

 In the summer the fruit is produced freely in this station. Mr. Hiern 

 mentions that it occurs in five (1 Barnstaple, 5 Honiton, 6 Torquay, 

 7 Plymouth, 8 Tavistock) out of the eight botanical districts into 

 which Devonshire is divided. 



Bartramia pomiformis Hedw. Wall-crevices on the east side of 

 the road north and south of MuUacott Cross near llfracombe. 



Ptilonotis fontana Brid. Plentifully in and by the rivulet on 

 the coast halfway between llfracombe and Lee, near Avhere the coast- 

 road between these places crosses the streamlet, producing male flowers 

 freely in the summer, but I did not see capsules. 



tVebera carnea Schp. Damp clay banks in several localities near 

 JouENAL or Botany.— Vol. 57. [May, 1919.] l 



