56 TRANSACTIONS AND PROCEEDINGS OF THE [Sess. lv. 



Mr E. M. Holmes also sent for exhibition specimens of 

 Mollia fragilis, Lindl., along with the following comments: — 

 In Braithwaite's Bi^itish Moss Flora (pp. 254-5) this moss is 

 stated to occur on " wet mountain rocks," and the localities 

 there given are Ben Lawers, Clova, Ben Laoigh (Perth), and 

 Eoundstone (Connemara). It is stated to be very like Mollia 

 tortuosa, but distinguished by its " straight leaves with longly 

 excurrent triangular nerve." During a visit to Tent's Muir 

 sands, near the mouth of the Tay, last August, under the 

 guidance of Mr W. Smith of Arbroath, I went to see 

 Distichiwm inclinatum and Cataseopium nigritum in situ, so 

 as to observe their mode of growth, and the character of the 

 ground they prefer. Whilst searching for these plants we 

 found a moss which, to tlie naked eye, looked almost exactly 

 like a Campylopus, growing in similar dense tufts, and having 

 the secund habit and shining narrow leaves of that genus. 

 But I noticed that the leaves were nearly all broken at the 

 tips, a character possessed, so far as I remember, by only 

 three of our native mosses — Barhula sinuosa, Mollia nitida, 

 and Mollia fragilis. The first two species are both remark- 

 ably crisped when dry, and quite different in habit from 

 Mollia fragilis. On placing a leaf of the Tent's Muir plant 

 under the microscope, it was evidently Mollia fragilis, and 

 showed the hyaline cells at the base of the leaf character- 

 istic of the section to which this species belongs.* This is 

 the only feature in which it approaches Mollia tortuosa. It 

 has not the least resemblance to it in habit. It is indeed 

 so like a Carivpylopus that Schimper first gave it the 

 manuscript name of Campylopus Hartmanni, and Bicchi 

 sent it in fruit to Schimper as Dicranum falcatum ! The 

 point of interest, however, to which I desire to direct 

 attention is the occurrence of this moss at the level of 

 the .sea, and within a few (100 at most) yards from the 

 sea at high tide. It may be pointed out, in relation to 

 this fact however, that Schimper {Synopsis, p. 220) states 

 that it grows " in rupibus siccis atque in uliginosis litorum 

 maris" ("prope Gevaliam Sueci;e "). On Tent's Muir it 

 grew in damjj sand, which doubtless is slightly calcareous 

 from the aljundance of shells in it. It is difficult to under- 

 stand how the moss could have arrived in the place 



* See Brit. Moss Flora, tab. xxxviii. fig. 9. 



