TASMAiN'TAN BilYorilYTA. 



By L. Rodway. 



(Read April, 1912.) 



INTRODUCTORY. 



The Tasmanian Bryophyta have received a consider- 

 able amount of attention by both collectors and specialists, 

 and the results of their labours are recorded in many differ- 

 ent publications. Only two efforts have been made to com- 

 pile the descriptions, first, in Hooker's noble "Flora Tas- 

 maniae," published very many years ago, and, second, in 

 Bastows excellent little Handbooks of the Mosses and 

 Hepatics. Unfortunately, many errors have crept in, and 

 plants have been recorded as Tasmanian that probably do 

 not live here. Also the treatment of this group has under- 

 gone considerable revision since these publications. The 

 peristome has lost much of its charm for taxonomists, and 

 more attention is paid to habit and structural features. But 

 the principal reason why a revision of the group is at pre- 

 sent justified is because the persistent labour of W. A. 

 Weymouth has added about a hundred and lifty new 

 species to our list ; besides which he has submitted his large 

 collection to European experts : the Hepatics to Stephani, 

 the Sphagna to Warnstoft, Ortnotrica to Venturi, and the 

 rest to V. F. Brotherus. It seemed a pity such splendid 

 work should be unavailable for the local student, and as 

 Mr. Weymouth is indisposed to undertake it, the following 

 articles are produced with his full consent. 



The work will not be a more compilation, but the de- 

 scriptions will all be original from the sjDecimens in 

 Archer's, Weymouth's, and my collections, and, with few 

 exceptions, these have been identified by the above-men- 

 tioned experts. Very few others will be included, and 

 where this is so, full mention will be made. Otherwise all 

 plants that cannot be verified will be excluded. This will, 

 perhaps, mean rejecting some that should be included, but 

 as this is intended somewhat as a new departure, it is best 

 to go as far as possible in eliminating erroneous identifica- 

 tions. For this reason, and the necessity of abbreviation, 



