422 
HEPATICAK. 
ERY little was done in this class until late in the last 
century, and older notices are decidedly meagre, but during 
the last thirty years the country has been explored by several 
workers, more especially in its northern parts, and a considerable 
number of species collected. 
The long-felt want of a satisfactory work on the British 
Hepatice has at length been richly supplied by Mr. W. H 
Pearson’s splendid monograph just completed, which has been 
most useful in making out our Derbyshire forms. Mr, G. A. 
Holt kindly supplied me with a list drawn from his own 
herbarium and those of Messrs. Pearson, Whitehead and Wild ; 
Mr. Mason of Burton-on-Trent lent his specimens, mostly of Mid 
and South Derbyshire, for inspection, and the records thus 
obtained, together with my own discoveries, constitute the bulk 
of the 96 species which are so far known for the County. 
The climatic features which make Derbyshire so_ prolific 
in Mosses have the same effect in Hepatics; and there is a 
similar limitation of species to particular formations, 5 being 
found on limestone only, 6 on limestone and Permian, 28 on 
grit or grit sand, and 5 on wet moorland or marshes. There 
are a few which are of special interest owing to their rarity or 
to their occurrence in the County being a considerable extension 
from previously recorded localities, such as Hygrobiella laavfolia 
(Westmorland, Yorkshire), Lophocolea spicata (Cornwall, N. Wales, 
Inverness), Targionia hypophylla (W. Yorkshire), on both sides 
of the Dove in Dovedale, and Anthoceros punctatus. Although 
the present list amounts to a fair representation of this class for 
the County, there are still several species not yet noticed which 
may be expected to occur and to be brought to light by further 
investigation. 
