181 



SOME COUNTY LISTS OF MOSSES. 



also been on the watch for many seasons with the same object. 

 The discovery of the plant in West Norfolk led me to refer to my 

 specimens of Nitellas collected in Cambridgeshire in 1895, and 

 amon(,'st them I found Xitella mucrunata put away amongst some 

 unidentified specimens. It was collected in a waterway leading into 

 the Ouse just below Ely. Messrs. Groves, who have been good 

 enough to verify all the gatherings which I have quoted, refer to 

 this plant as larger than any British specimens which they had 

 seen ; its size had deceived me into regarding it as N. opaca or 

 N. flexilis, whilst the absence of fruit precluded me (I thought) 

 from deciding between the two. 



I have one or two other new records still to mention — Chara 

 fro (/ills var. capillacea Coss. & Germ., from the Haddenham Clay- 

 pits near Ely, and rolypeUa prolifora Leonh., from the Canal at 

 Oxford, both in 1896. These new records for 2\ prolifera con- 

 siderdbly enlarge the area of distribution of that fickle plant. 

 So far Sussex, Lincolnshire, Hunts, Cambs, and Northants have 

 been its only recorded vice-counties; now we may add East Norfolk, 

 West Norfolk, Oxfordshire, and, as Mr. Druce's Flora of Berkshire, 

 just issued, records, a station from that county. 



Whilst speaking of Tolypc/la prolifera, I should like to mention 

 the extraordinary crop of this plant which appeared last summer in 

 the Old West River, near Stretham, Cambs. It came to perfection 

 about June 25th, and then showed itself in a thick bed fringing the 

 bank of the river, just below the surface of the water. It did not 

 extend into the bed of the river, preferring the shallower water, 

 where it produced somewhat short barren branchlets, and densely 

 compacted fruiting heads. How far it extended I cannot say — I left 

 it after tracing it for a mile or more. 



As regards .V. miicronata, its eventual discovery in the Great 

 Ouse, in Cambridgeshire, was to be expected, but the record from 

 West_ Norfolk brings it into an entirely mdependent locality. It was 

 growing very sparingly, though the specimens are very luxuriant. 

 I hope to be able to collect it in better fruiting state next season, 

 but it is more than probable that no sign of its existence in any of 

 our waters will be discernible. 



SOME COUNTY LISTS OF MOSSES. 



By H. N. Dixon, M.A., F.L.S. 



The herbarium of the late H. Boswell, which has recently 

 passed into the possession of the Oxford University, contained the 

 voucher specimens of mosses sent to him as referee (for Musci) of 

 the Botanical Record Club. Mr. Boswell had drawn up from these 

 specimens basis-lists for thirteen vice-counties, which were duly 

 published in the Reports of the Botanical Record Club. A con- 

 siderable number, however, remained, and these have been submitted 

 to me for examination. They represent some twenty vice-counties, 



