126 



Leaving, with the Llanthony district, the moorland and sub-montane 

 species, we come next in order to the lower hills of Herefordshire. I know of but 

 few mosses which merit particular mention in this section. Beyond some of the 

 most common Hiipna, &c., there is not much to attract the muscologist on such open 

 downs of our Red Sandstone, as for instance Garway hill. One species, somewhat 

 remarkable for its absence from such spots in Herefordshire, is Brachythecium 

 albicans, which has only been found as yet very sparingly in one or two spots, as 

 Shobdon hill, the western .slope of Backbury, and by Mr. Burton Watkins at 

 Trelleck bog, in Monmouthshire. Upon our limestone hills there is somewhat 

 more to repay search. The rare Pottia cwspitosa is abundant in spots on the 

 Common hill, above Fownhope. Intermixed with this I was also fortunate 

 enough to find this year a scrap of Systegium muUicapsularc, and at another time 

 a similar scrap of Phascum curvicollum. 



When we leave the open parts of the hills for their wooded or rocky sides, 

 we obtain a more abundant moss harvest. The rocky and hilly woods on the 

 borders of the Forest of Dean — for example, Penyard and The Chase, and again 

 the Harechurch bank of the Hope Mansel valley, are rich in mosses, and merit 

 a far more thorough exploration than they have yet received. Here Tetraphis 

 pellucida is met with in plenty, and will some time be found fruiting, in which 

 state Mr. Crouch has gathered it near Pembridge. The four allied Plagiothecia, 

 denticulatum, sylvaticum, elcgans, and undulatum are all to be found. Bartramia 

 pomiformis, Mnium cuspidatum, rostratum, and others, are common. Here Grim- 

 mia trichophylla occurs again : the beautiful Aulacomnium androgynum is both 

 fine and tolerably abundant. Here, too, and only here, in our district, as at present 

 known, one of the most interesting of our native mosses is found, the Cave Moss 

 Schistostcga osmundacea. It has been observed in three or four several localities 

 in the wooded banks on the skirts of the Forest of Dean. This plant appears, 

 besides the partial darkness in which it is always found, to like a peculiar soil ; the 

 earth in all the localities where I have seen it being a very fine yellow sand which 

 readily falls away with the touch, while I have looked for it in vain in positions 

 otherwise very favourable but lacking this peculiar soil. We must not leave these 

 mosses of the rocks without mentioning the rare Grimmia subsquarrosa and Cyno- 

 dontium Bruntoni which Mr. Crouch has been fortunate enough to find at Stan- 

 ner ; Pterogonium gvacile, which occurs in abundance at the White Rocks, 

 Garway hill, and at the Buck-stone, West Gloucester ; and Antitrichia curtipen- 

 dula, which Mr. Crouch finds in small quantities at Pembridge. 



The Wood mosses are in one way more noticeable than any other group ; 

 in that they are generally the largest and finest of the family. They are 

 emphatically winter mosses, to be looked for from November to January, just as 

 the wall mosses are to be looked for from February to April. But I do not find 

 so many noticeable species here as in many of the other groups. The larger 

 Dicrana (scoparium, majus and palustre) are of course common, the latter least so, 

 and not fruiting; and equally of course, the Mnia honium and undulatum, 

 with Atrickum undulatum, Isotliccium myurum, Eurhynchium myosuroides, and 



