752 ■ 



the leaves soTnewhat narrower, the pedicels more slender, and the capsules soon turn- 

 ing blaclc, yet in all essential characters it entirely agrees with our British species. 



Hypnutn plumosum, (L.), with us assumes diversified forms, among which a re- 

 markable one collected by the late Miss Hutchins, at GlengarifT, has all the leaves de- 

 cidedly secund. The variety gathered by Dr. Watson, has the upper leaves alone 

 heteromallous ; but then its more erect and longer capsules, and the less concave but 

 substriated leaves, claim the adjustment of the balance between species and variety by 

 a practised hand. Dr. Taylor considered it less hazardous for the present, to leave it 

 in the latter rank. But the impatient may say, when then are we to expect the means 

 of exactly deciding ? The answer is, perhaps not until some muscologist enjoys the 

 privilege of seeing both growing in their native localities. For there is much value 

 in the character taken from the habit of a plant. Many modem elevations of varieties 

 to the rank of species have been first suggested by the silent appeal of the look of the 

 growing individuals. In Dr. Watson's state of Hypnum rutabulum (L.), a mark hi- 

 therto considered essential to the species seems to be vanishing ; the pedicels exhibit 

 scarcely any appearance of roughness immediately below the capsules : in all other 

 particulars the Philadelphian and European mosses coincide. But Mr. Wilson, whose 

 observations on this tribe are always as original as acute, had long since taught Dr. T. 

 that the scabrous state of the pedicel in this species is liable to great variation ; inso- 

 much that he seems disposed to doubt whether Hypnum vagans of Hooker, in Drum- 

 mond's ' Musci Americana,' separated principally on account of the smoothness of the 

 fruitstalks, be really distinct from Hypnum rutabulum, (L.) 



Among the very few lichens sent by Dr. Watson, is a species of Coenomyce, which 

 may be considered new, and is called Coenomyce foliacea. Its specific character may 

 be thus given. — " Podetia two inches high, loosely caespitose, dichotomously branched, 

 the ultimate branches subulate, and tipped with brown ; the buds in flattened granu- 

 lar pale green elevations of the cuticle, soon expanding into flat lobes, which are sub- 

 pinnately branched and crenate, pale glaucous above, snow-white beneath, unaltered 

 by moisture. There are no apothecia present.'' 



The generic name is that of Acharius, which perhaps should not be abandoned but 

 upon the clearest necessity. The modern subdivision of the genus into Cladonia and 

 Scyphophorus appears attended with no advantage, while the species of these two tribes 

 are, by the confession of the adopters themselves, joined by links that appear insepara- 

 ble from either set. Indeed, on this question, the present plant is quite in point, hav- 

 ing all the habit of Coenomyce Sparassa (Ach.), (Scyphophorus of Fee and DeCand.), 

 with the attenuated and subulate branches of Cladonia of the same authors. 



The buds of lichens have not received the consideration from botanists which their 

 importance merits. Hitherto the characters have been drawn from the thallus or from 

 the apothecia alone : but the buds by which, for the most part, these plants are multi- 

 plied, and which, if watched during development, present most remarkable features, 

 should be hailed as a new and welcome element for specific distinctions. 



In Coenomyce Sparassa {Ach.) the buds originate in coarse white granules, thickly 

 set, and rising at once above the surface of the podetia ; in our plant they are flat, 

 scarcely eminent above the cuticle of the podetia, pale glaucous green from the begin- 

 ning, and not so densely crowded, nor do they expand into lobes so linear. Another 

 character may be taken from the branches of the podetia, which in the former are near- 

 ly parallel and of equal thickness, except at the very summit, while in Coenomyce fo- 

 liacea they are more gradually acuminated and divaricated above. — G. E. D. 



