On Bog Mosses. 257 



broadly ovate and elongato-lanceolate, three toothed at apex, in- 

 curved at edges in the upper half, margined; hyahne cells strongly 

 reticulato-fibrose, on tlie inner side of the leaf very jn'ominent, 

 confluent and perforated with pores, on the back separated from 

 each other by the interposed chlorophyll cells, not perforated. 

 Male plants in distinct tufts, rarely intermixed with the female, 

 but resembling them ; amentula small, orange-coloured. Fruit 

 from the capitulum or from the side of the stem, on a more or less 

 elongated pseudopodium ; peduncular leaves large, imbricated, outer 

 oblongo-lanceolate, inner ligulate, densely fibrose from the middle 

 to the apex ; capsule small, thin, ochreous-brown ; spores large, 

 sulphur-coloured. 



Var. fi Jiuitans Schimper, Torf. p. 72, T. XII. fig. 6. _ Very 

 long and slender; pendent branches none, all the leaves distant, 

 pseudopodia very long, with distant leaves. 



Var. y longifolium Lindberg M.S. Eesembling the typical 

 form ; branches more attenuated at points, with longer leaves ; 

 cauline leaves with the hyaline cells all fibrose. 



Hab. Spongy places on heaths, and wet hollows in hilly places. 

 Not common. Fr. May. Occurs throughout Europe, but most 

 frequent in the Scandinavian regions. In Britain it has been found 

 in Lancashire, York, Sussex, Kent, &c., also in Scotland and Ireland. 

 The specimens figured were collected on Keston Common, in Kent, 

 by my friend Mr. Beeves. Var. ft is stated by Schimper to have 

 been found by Lesquereux at Marais les Fonts in the Swiss Jura. 

 Var. 7 was collected by Prof. Lindberg at Helsingfors, Finland. 



A word as to the alteration of name. In Phoenogamic Botany, 

 Entomology, and other departments of Natural History, the adop- 

 tion of the first name by which a species has been described (dating 

 from the establishment of the binomial nomenclature by Linnteus) 

 is considered imperative; yet the synonymy of mosses is wofully 

 confused, for Hedwig and others gave a new specific name as often 

 as they changed the genus, a rule not sanctioned by the best 

 authorities. Others may object with greater reason that the brief 

 descriptions of the older authors are not sufficient to identify the 

 species with certainty, yet it must be remembered that the actual 

 specimens of very many of them are in existence, and their exami- 

 nation by a competent authority in most cases settles the question. 

 Prof. Lindberg, who has worked so indefatigably at this unattrac- 

 tive department of botanical literature, has shown in his ' Kev. 

 Grit. Ic. Muse. Fl. Dan.,' that this species is in the St. Petersburg 

 Herbarium named teneUum in Ehrhart's own handwriting; this, 

 however, without description, might not be allowed to stand, but 

 the same species received the same name from Persoon, as proved 

 by a specimen from him, preserved in Swartz's herbarium, and a 

 description is given by Bridel in his ' Mantissa Muse' (1819), the 



