298 PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. 
surprised if some ten or twenty of these different forms turned 
out to belong to one and the same species. There still remained 
a third difficulty, the greatest of all, namely, the doubtfulness of 
what a species 1s; and in the lower forms of life the variability is 
so great that he doubted if specific distinctions could be made 
with any certainty. The same remark is applicable to the lowest 
forms of the higher divisions of animals, and the Entomostraca, 
standing low in the articulate class are probably subject to similar 
variability. 
Specimens of Hydra with Paramecium aurelia and Trichodina 
pediculus parasitic upon them were shown by Mr, A. Brothers. 
February 27th, 1865. 
The PRESIDENT in the Chair. 
Mr. G. E. Hunt read the following “ Notes on Mosses” :— 
Campylopus setifolius, Wilts—This species was described by 
Wilson in his ‘ Bryologia Britannica,’ from specimens collected 
by the late Dr. Taylor on Carrig Mountain, Ireland. Since 
then it has been observed by Dr. Moore, of Dublin, in county 
Wicklow, and on Cromaglaun; by myself, in great abundance, 
at Cromaglaun and Gap of Dunloe, Killarney. In these sta- 
tions it is the female plant that we find. In August, 1863, 
however, I met the male plant on the moors of the Isle of Skye, 
this being the only recorded occurrence of the male plant, and 
the only occasion of the species being found out of Ireland. It 
is at once distinguished from every other Campylopus by the 
large auricles of the base of the leaf, which are composed of per- 
feetly colourless, diaphanous cells, and by the large red quadrate 
cells above this base. 
In Dieranodontium longirostre, which presents some characters 
similar to this species, the large quadrate cells above the base 
are green. Specimens were exhibited of both the above spe- 
cies; also Scotch ones of Dicranodontium aristatum. 
At Southport, in November last, I observed a new species of 
Brachythecium, intermediate between campestre and rutabulum, 
differing from the former in its less plicate leaves and very rough 
setee, and from the latter in its slightly plicate leaves, lanceolate, 
gradually tapering from a wide base to a very acute point, not at 
all acuminate, shining; inflorescence, as in these species, mo- 
noicous. If a variety, it must be united with Brachythecium 
campestre, which has not yet been certainly identified in Britain. 
Specimens were exhibited. 
