62 ON THE STUDY OF THE MOSSES. 



inch aud half-iuch, still more bo. These lenses, fitted in horn cases, may 

 be obtained fi'om any of our local opticians at from Is. upwards, the 

 price varjdng according to the finish of the article. If the School Micro- 

 scope mentioned below is obtained, one or more of the lenses supplied 

 with it may be made to do service in the field ; but, if so used, should 

 always be carried in a sraall chamois leather bag to protect from 

 scratches. 



It is advisable to acquire the habit of constantly using a lens, making 

 out by its aid aU the details possible, such as the position of the leaves 

 on the stem, general characters, &c., noticing whether they are straight, 

 curved, falcate, and so on, and their direction when dry. This latter 

 character is often a ready guide to neaiiy allied species. For instance, two 

 mosses common on wall tops, Bryum capillare and B. ccespitichnn, differ 

 materially in appearance when dry, the former having the leaves remark- 

 ably twisted, the latter having them straight and imbricated. Many 

 other like cases might be cited. 



A good text book will, of course, be indispensable. There are several 

 to select fi-om, published at various prices. For instance, Stark's 

 " British Mosses," having twenty coloured plates, is offered for 5s. ; but 

 this is not to my thinking a satisfactory book, the descriptions being too 

 vague to be useful ; stiU, many of the more frequent mosses may be made 

 out from it. Berkeley's " Handbook of British Mosses," with twenty-four 

 coloured plates, costs 21s. new, but may frequently be obtained second-hand 

 for about 14s. The great fault of this jvork is that the nomenclature is not 

 in all cases that most generally adopted, aud the author gives no synonyms. 

 This, I think, is a serious fault, as it leaves one in uncertainty as to the 

 name adopted by other authors. Of cheap books the one I prefer is 

 C. P. Hobkirk's " Sj-nopsis of the British Mosses," which costs 7s. 6d. The 

 only fault is the absence of plates. It is so handy in size that it 

 may be carried in the pocket without inconvenience, contains excellent 

 descriptions of all our British mosses, and the classification adopted in it 

 is excellent. But the best text book is Wilson's " Bi^ologia Britaunica." 

 It contains excellent illustrations of all the mosses described in the 

 volume, giving figures of many of the minute details. The dcsci-iptions 

 are admirable, being those of one of the best bi-yologists our country has 

 produced. Any student who makes good use of this work will find that 

 most of the difficulties surrounding this study will be rapidly overcome. 

 This is a somewhat expensive book, costing 128. with the plates uncoloured, 

 or 84s. with the plates coloured. The uncoloured edition is to my thinking 

 quite as useful as the more expensive one. I should certainly advise the 

 student to get this volume as his text book. 



Of course a microscope will bo almost, if not quite, indispensable. 

 Those instruments, as everyone knows, are very varied in price, a first- 

 class microscope being an expensive luxury, though there are in the 

 market excellent instruments at most moderate prices. But a great 

 amount of good work may be done with a cheap microscope — in fact, a 

 groat deal of the best work that has been done for sciouce has been done 

 with comparatively inexpensive instruments. 



