153 



MOSSES AND HEPATICS OF SOUTH ABEKDEEN. 



By W. E. Nicholson. 



(Plate 526.) 



The following notes are the results of a holiday mostly spent 

 with Mr. H. H. Knight at Braemar, where we botanized together 

 from the 12th to the 24th July, 1912. Mr. Knight also spent a 

 few days at Ballater before I joined him, and from the 21th to the 

 30th July I was at the Spital of Glenshee, where Mr. Peter Ewing, 

 F.L.S., helped me in many ways to explore the surrounding 

 country. The district does not appear to have been recently 

 worked very closely for mosses and hepatics, and this, coupled 

 with the fact that w T e found two novelties to the British list, 

 besides the rare and recently discovered Gephalozia Loitlesbergeri 

 Schffn., has induced me to think that a few notes upon what we 

 found might be of some interest. 



The rocks about Braemar are almost exclusively of granite 

 formation with small outcrops of limestone at Creag Choinnich, 

 Morrone Hill, and for a small area in Glen Clunie. Except on 

 Morrone Hill, where the limestone reached to about 2500 ft. under 

 rather unfavourable conditions, the outcrops of limestone were at 

 low elevations. The whole of the extensive mass of Ben Muich 

 Dhui is of siliceous rocks, and in consequence hepatics were far 

 better represented in the district than mosses. 



From Glenshee, limestone and schistose rocks reaching an 

 elevation of over 3000 ft. at the head of Canlochan were accessible, 

 and the flora generally, especially the phanerogamic flora, is 

 richer. 



One of the most striking features of the hepatic flora of the 

 Braemar district was the prevalence of the genera Gymnomitrium 

 and Marsupella, of which no fewer than sixteen of the twenty-two 

 species recorded for Britain occurred, including the rare M. sphace- 

 lata and M. sparsifolia and the newly discovered ill", apiculata. 



Braemar is a good centre, but some of the best ground is a 

 long way off. The summit of Lochnagar is twelve miles distant, 

 and that of Ben Muich Dhui twenty miles, and as in both cases 

 the route is only practicable for any kind of conveyance for about 

 half way, an early start is necessary if any time is to be devoted 

 to exploration of the higher ground. 



Besides South Aberdeen (92) the region examined embraced 

 small portions of Banff (91), East Perth (89), and Forfar (90). 



I am indebted to Mr. Knight for many additional notes; to 

 Mr. S. M. Macvicar for much assistance with several critical 

 species, especially of Scapania ; and to the Eev. H. G. Jameson 

 for kindly drawing the excellent plate of the novelties. 



In the following list the nomenclature of the mosses is that 

 of Mr. Dixon's Students' Handbook of British Mosses, while that 

 of the hepatics follows for the most part the arrangement of 

 Mr. Macvicar's Sfoule?its' Handbook of British Hepatics recently 

 published. 



Journal of Botany. — Vol. 51. [May, 1913.] n 



