TOO Mr. Cosmo Melvill on 



By Mr. John Boyd, — two quaint old microscopes. One 

 presented to the section in 1873 by Mr. Rideout ; the 

 other, believed to be John Dalton's, made by B. Martin, 

 London, which is the property of the Society. 



Dr. HODGKINSON exhibited and explained, "A pris- 

 matic chart for determining the characteristics of interference 

 colours." 



Notes on a Small Collection of Mosses from Mauritius. 

 By J. Cosmo Melvill, M.A., F.L.S. 



(Received February 13, 1888.) 



For the last three or four years I have from time to 

 time received various botanical collections, mostly Crypto- 

 gamic, from the island of Mauritius. In 1885 two very 

 interesting parcels of Marine Algae arrived, which I submitted 

 to Prof J. G. Agardh, of Lund, Sweden, the result of his 

 investigations being that no less than twelve species — and 

 these among the most conspicuous and showy kinds 

 lY^ainly — w^ere described by him as new to science. And 

 last July I came into possession of a collection of Musci 

 from the same source, with a few Ferns and Hepaticae, 

 intermingled. 



The ferns sent are very meagre; Mr. J. G. Baker, F.R.S., 

 of Kew, detected one common species of Polypodium and 

 three of Trichomanes: — T. cuspidatum (Willd) = Bojeri 

 (Hooker) endemic to Mauritius and Bourbon, T. Filicula 

 (Bory) = bipunctatum (Poiret) which latter name has priority, 

 a very widely-distributed fern, and T. trinerve (Baker), a 

 recently described and rare species, not occurring elsewhere. 



The Mosses have all been carefully examined by Mr. 

 Henry Boswell, M.A., of Oxford, one of our highest 



