92, MOSS HABITATS. 
blunt, bordered with one or two series of elongated cells, the principal 
portion of the leaf being formed of largish, roundish, hexagonal cells; 
the capsules roundish, with a small, shortly-beaked lid; fringe similar to 
that of the Bryums. 
Aulacomnion palustre is closely allied to the last, is fond of boggy or 
marshy places, and is usually abundant where it does occur; rarely, 
however, found in fruit. This species grows in large yellow tufts; the 
stems are coated by numerous reddish rootlets, and hence are much 
matted together; the leaves are crowded, spreading when moist, much 
twisted when dry, somewhat lance-shaped, roughened with minute 
projections on the surface, and toothed at thetips; leaf-cells roundish ; 
the capsules are very rarely formed, but not unfrequently little green 
stalks are produced, which bear at their tips minute balls of gmme-like 
bodies, by which the plant is perpetuated. 
Hypnum cuspidatum is a very frequent inhabitant of marshes and 
other damp places, and usually fruits abundantly. This species grows in 
tall greenish or reddish brown tufts; the stems are often 4in. to 6in. 
long, pinnately branched ; branches remarkably cusp-like at the tips; 
leaves large, oblong, rather blunt, and nerveless; leaf-cells narrow and 
elongated ; fruit-stalk lateral; capsule curved and turned to one side; 
fringe, consisting of an outer row of sixteen beautifully barred teeth, and 
an inner membrane of sixteen tooth-like processes ; lid conical. , : 
The foregoing notes on moss habitats are, Iam convinced, full of 
faults; they have, however, been given in the hope of calling the 
attention of some of the students of Nature to a vast and very beautiful 
family of plants, and, if they should induce any one to give some of 
his spare moments to this study, they will have served the purpose 
for which they were written. 
NOTES ON COLEOPTERA, &. 
BY THE REY. W. W. FOWLER, M.A. 
Much has been said about the scarcity of Coleoptera in the 
Midlands, but though the southern districts of England undoubtedly 
produce more species, yet the midland districts, if thoroughly worked, 
are by no means unproductive of good things, and in some genera are 
very rich. 
The fact of the matter is, that while Lepidopterists may be counted 
by the hundred or the thousand, Coleopterists may almost be numbered 
by units. It is natural that this should be so, for the butterflies and moths 
are emphatically ‘common objects of nature.” They are conspicuous 
objects for the most part, and thrust themselves upon our notice; they 
are, too, except a few groups, easily made out and easily arranged. 
Beetles, on the other hand, are obscure in their habits, and in many cases 
are very hard to name; the number of British species too—more than 
3,000—is alarming to the beginner; and yet if one really does begin in 
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