82 



LOCALITIES. 



England. \ 



o ^f^' 1 I- in all our mountain districts. 



Ireland. J 

 The Fir Club-Moss, next to the common Club-moss, is the most 

 abundant of our British species; it is however almost exclusively con- 

 fined to alpine districts, growing on bare and bleak mountain slopes, 

 or occasionally rooted in the fissures of rocks. I found it abundantly 

 in the Western Highlands of Scotland, and have received specimens 

 or records of habitats fro\n my kind correspondents at Edinburgh, 

 showing it to be a plant of general occurrence among the Scottish 

 hills ; and Mr. C. C. Babington informs me he found it in August 

 last in Harris and North Uist, two of the outer Hebrides. From the 

 North of England I have also received a variety of habitats, far too 

 numerous to detail ; and in North Wales it is abundant on the ranges 

 of which Snowdon, Cader Idris and Plinlymmon are the more noto- 

 rious summits. In the midland and southern counties of England we 

 find it more sparingly distributed. I have specimens before me from 

 the Titterstone Clee Hill, Shropshire, found by Mr. Cameron ; from 

 Moseley Common, Worcestershire, by Mr. Luxford; from Felthorpe 

 Bog, Norfolk, by Mr. Wigham; from Leith Hill, Suney, and Tilgate 

 Forest, Sussex, by Mr. J. A. Brewer ; and from Woking Common, by 

 Mr. D. Cooper : Mr. C. C. Babington has found it also on Waldi'on 

 Down, Sussex. It is said to grow in Derbyshire, Oxfordshire and 

 Devonshire, but I have not seen examples from these counties. 



On the Welsh mountains I have observed that only a portion of the 

 plants appear to be in a thriving and healthy condition ; the larger 

 ones almost invariably being loaded with fructification, and exhibit- 

 ing symptoms of incipient decay. With the exception of Dillenius I 

 think no author has noticed this peculiarity ; and this learned writer 

 rationally concludes that each plant exists for a definite term and then 

 dies.* Whether the term of its existence be biennial, triennial, or 

 longer, I leave for future observers to decide ; but I have not the 

 slightest doubt that its existence has a fixed term, as suggested by the 

 great muscologist. 



* Quum ante 14 annos montes Cambriae plantarum gratia peragrarem, Augusti 

 fine, plures plantse semiaridse et quaedam mortus mihi visee sunt, cum initio hujus 

 mensis omnes virerent; id verotam in majoriljus quam in medice magnitudinis j^lantis 

 mihi observatum. Ex quo singulas aliquot annos durare et postea interire conjicio. 

 Dill. « Hist. Muse.' 436. 



