NOTES AND QUERIES. 



223 



the line of sight, that it is no wonder 

 Hedwig and others believed in a 

 fissile lid." The columella is very 

 thick, completely included within 

 the capsule, and surrounded by a 

 great number of minute spores, of 

 an irregular, somewhat roundish or 

 angular outline, and, so far as I 

 have seen, they all appear to have a 

 darker spot in the centre, which in 

 some seems a depression, in others 

 like a fold. This moss can scarcely 

 be confounded with any other, even 

 on a mere cursory examination, ex- 

 cept one or two species of Fissidms, 

 which, however, do not flourish in a 

 similar habitat with Schistostega. 

 The latter may be readily distin- 

 guished from Fissidens by its want- 

 ing a peristome. This is the only 

 genus of the family Schistoste.j(B, and 

 osmundacea is the only species, at 

 least the only British species. 



Synonyms : 

 Schistostega osmundacea, Web. and 



Mohr, Tasch. p. 92. — Nees and 



Hornsch. Bryol. Germ., t. 11. f. 1. 



— Bridel, Bryol. Univers. — Br. 



and Sch. Bryol. Europ. fasc. 17. 

 Gymnostomum osmundaceum, Smith. 



Flora. Brit., Eng. Bot. t. 2213. 

 S. i^ennata, Hook and Tayl., Muse. 



Brit. t. 8. 

 Gymnostomum pennatum, Hedw. St. 



Crypt, t. 29. 

 Milium osmundaceum,, Dickson. 

 Dicksonia pusilla, Ehr. 

 Bryum pennatum, With., Hull. 



Schistostega osmundacea. — Recently 

 whilst taking a walk on Overton 

 Hills, near Frodsham, I discovered 

 the above rare, but lovely little 

 moss, called by some bryologists, 

 5^. pennata ; thus adding another 

 botanical rarity to this neighbour- 

 hood. It is growing in a small 

 sandhole, about eighteen inches 

 long, and ten in diameter: how it 

 has come there I cannot tell, as 

 evidently the hole has not been 

 made very long. At first I thought 

 it was some sort of conferva, 

 and it appears that I am not the 

 only one that has thought so, for 

 Berkely, and Stark, in their •' His- 

 tories of British Mosses," have made 

 the same remark. Its specific name, 

 " osmundacea," is not inappropriate, 

 being very like Osmunda regalis in 

 miniature. When seen under the 

 microscope it is a beautiful object. — 

 J. F. R., Frodsham, October, 1804. 



In No. 11, page 174, of " The 

 Naturalist" is a request for informa- 

 tion of the locality of the Tree Spar- 

 row in Lancashire. It occurs in the 

 neighbourhood of Manchester, gener- 

 ally building in holes in decayed Wil- 

 low, Poplar, and Oak Trees, near 

 the banks of streams. I have known 

 as many as four or five nests in one 

 tree, and sometimes a nest of the 

 Starling in the same. This season 



