SELIGERIA CALCICOLA, 39 
this plant, and he at once recognized it as his recently described Seli- 
geria subcernua, 
The history of the species begins with Dickson, who described a Moss, 
found on fragments of bricks, in rubbish heaps, near Wetherby, York- 
shire, under the name of Bryum paucifolium, in the fourth fasciculus of 
his ‘Cryptogamia.’ Much uncertainty has always existed as to this plant. 
It was referred by Smith, in 1804, to Dicranum cylindricum, Hedw. 
(Ceratodon cylindricus, Br. and Sch.), on the authority of Dawson Tur- 
ner's herbarium, and it is quite possible this species may have been in 
that herbarium, although it was not discriminated as a British plant for 
many years after. Wilson considers it to be Gymnostomum tenue, Sch., 
on the faith of specimens without lid, seen by him in the same herbarium. 
Smith, in 1813, obtained from Turner specimens of Bryum paucifolium, 
Dicks., which he had received from Eagle, to whom they had been com- 
municated by Dickson himself as a portion of those found on a brick 
at Wetherby. These specimens figured and described in ‘ English 
Bote (2506) are now in the British Museum, and are the specimens 
rmined by Schimper to be his Seligeria subcernua. It is evident 
that Dickson must have distributed different plants as his Bryum pau- 
cifolium, and his figure is so general that it does not assist in deter- 
mining which of the three he really meant ; nor does the original draw- 
ing, made by Sowerby for Dickson’s ‘ Cryptogamia, now in the Bota- 
nical Department of the British Museum, help to a solution of the 
matter. As, however, the specimens in the British herbarium are a 
‘portion of Dickson’s plants from the Wetherby station, they establish 
his species to be the Seligeria ; and, as these specimens are the very 
materials on which Smith founded his Gymnostomum paucifolium, pee 
can be no difficulty as to the propriety of restoring its original tri 
name. Its synonymy as a British plant will then be as follows :— 
Bryum paucifolium, Dicks. Crypt. Fasc. iv. p. 7. t. 11. f. 3 (1801). 
Gymnostomum paucifolium, Smith, Engl. Bot. 2506 (1813). 
Seligeria calcicola, Mitt. Journ. of Bot. 1864. p. 194. t. 19. f. 1-6 
(1864). 
S. subcernua, Sch. Bryol. Europ. Suppl. Fasc. i. (SELIGERIA) p. 1 
t. 1 (1864). 
S. paucifolia, nob. 
British Museum, Jan. 15, 1866. 
