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Uijpnum moUuscum abundant ; H. Sommcrfdti, I have also found fruiting ; 

 while in deep shade, under cliffs, on the east flank of the hill, Mnium 

 undiilatum, Thamnium alopecurum, and Anomodon viticulosus fruit abundantly. 

 Nor must it be thought that this list represents all that can be found of 

 interest upon these two hills. It must be remembered that the Moss-flora of 

 the Dowards has been examined very far more imperfectly, and during' a far 

 shorter period of time, than their more conspicuous flowering vegetation, yet even 

 this often receives additions still. The muscologist may, therefore, hope that 

 many treasures await his discovery here. Why should not, for instance, the rare 

 Barhula inclinat^, which has been found in very similar situations in Oxfordshire, 

 be lurking on the open parts of the Doward hills ; or, again, that other rarity, 

 Barhula hrevirostris, upon some of its shady moss-grown walls ? 



In the following lists it will be seen, at a glance, how much has been done, 

 and how much yet remains to be done, in the Moss-flora of Herefordshire. It will 

 be noticed, for example, that nothing at all has been done in Districts 4, 5, 6, and 

 ; in other words, in all the eastern parts of the county, from Ledbury on the 

 south to Ludlow on the north. I have myself only been able to work at all 

 thoroughly in the Eoss and St. Weonards Districts, with occasional visits to the 

 Woolhope and Hereford Districts, and somewhat more frequently to the Black 

 Mountain. It will be impossible to do any justice to our county flora, either in 

 this or any other of its departments, until a few more pairs of eyes will devote 

 themselves to the work of observing and recording, than do now. With regard 

 to the special subjects of our paper, I can assure anyone who likes to take them 

 up, that he will find in them an abundant harvest of interest and amusement, com- 

 bined with the gentle excitement of feeling that he is more likely in this depart- 

 ment of botany, than among the better worn paths of flowering plants, to add 

 some real discovery to the stock of human knowledge. Nor need we fear their 

 difficulty ; a quick eye for discerning minute objects and their differences, joined 

 to a love of out-door rambles, and of peering into out-of-the-way corners, are the 

 chief requisites. The main divisions of the Moss family are so eminently natural 

 that the student soon gets to recognise them very easily ; and when the facies of 

 the main genera and groups of genera are known, the separate species and groups 

 of species, by degrees, fall naturally into their places ; until the eye, as every 

 naturalist knows, becomes educated to recognise minute differences which pass at 

 first entirely undetected. Nor need it be thought that the possession of a high- 

 powered microscope is indispensable. The higher joowers are, for the most part, 

 certainly among British species, quite useless. A tolerable pocket lens for field 

 work, with a simple dissecting microscope and its accompanying needles and 

 knives, and a compound microscope with a good inch and half-inch glass are the 

 most that are required. Of course, it must not be thought that rarities will be 

 brought home at once. Unless quite by hap-hazard, rarities will not be discovered 

 until the common species are tolerably well known : and the bryologist especially 

 must be prepared for many disappointments and mortifications when what he has 

 deemed new turns out, over and over again, an old friend in some new dress, 



