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THE MOSSES OP SOUTH LANCASHIRE. 

 By J. A. Wheldon. 



There does not appear to be any complete list in print of the 

 mosses recorded for v.-c. 59. Few districts, however, have been 

 so thoroughly and carefully worked by such a number of able 

 bryologists, and therefore records are tolerably numerous. On the 

 whole the vice-county is not a favourable one for mosses. There 

 are no suitable habitats for the alpine species, and the uniformity 

 of the geological features, and contiguity of large manufacturing 

 towns with ever widening suburban districts, cause the number of 

 species to be smaller than might be expected. One or two in- 

 teresting "doughs" in the east, the sand-dunes in the west, and 

 the remnants of a few extensive "mosses" between are chiefly 

 instrumental in raising the list above the commonplace, and many 

 of these places are doomed in the near future to fall into the hands 

 of the jerry builder. 



I have compiled the following fairly representative catalogue of 

 the species from the various local floras, from specimens in my 

 collection, and from personal observations jotted down at intervals 

 during a residence of seven years in the district. I have been 

 obliged to omit many interesting notices of plants found near Tod- 

 morden by Mr. Nowell, and near Warrington by Mr. Wilson, on 

 account of the difficulty of determining on which side of the 

 boundary lines they occurred. I have no doubt that many so 

 omitted will subsequently prove to have been found on the Lanca- 

 shire side. 



The majority of records given are the old ones from the Floras 

 of Manchester and Liverpool. Unfortunately none of the editions 

 of these publications deal with the vice-county }jer se, but embrace 

 also portions of Cheshire, Derbyshire, and Yorkshire. The par- 

 ticular county of any given locality is rarely stated, except in Mr. 

 John Whitehead's excellent appendix on mosses in the Flora of 

 Ashton-under-Lyne and District. And even this, like the works 

 before mentioned, contains many such entries as " common on 

 clay banks," " frequent," &c., which in a list dealing with more 

 than one v.-c. are utterly useless for census purposes. 



Where I have found a plant still existing in a locality in the 

 past seven years, I have added the sign !, but the absence of this 

 mark does not in every case imply that I have searched there for it 

 in vain. When a specimen from the locality exists in my herbarium 

 the sign is doubled, thus !!. An asterisk precedes the names of 

 plants now first recorded for the vice -county. The name of the 

 finder follows that of the locality, and I have endeavoured to give 

 the original discoverer as far as possible. I fear this has only been 

 partially accomplished, especially in the Manchester district, from 

 lack of available information. Many records from the Manchester 

 flora by Mr. Grindon I have given on his authority, because I was 

 unable to assign them to the true finder from the brief note in his 

 introduction. I am responsible for all records not followed by a 



