1034 



roughly our mosses were believed to have been explored by the many 

 eminent cultivators of that branch of Botany, in this country. That 

 several of these so called new species will turn out merely varieties of 

 well known plants, there can, I fear, be little doubt ; but that a very 

 considerable proportion are really and bona fide good species, I am 

 equally convinced. 



Those two eminent botanists, Drs. Hooker and Taylor, the authors 

 of the well known ' Muscologia Britannica,' a work which is deserv- 

 edly held in high repute, differed so widely, and in many cases so 

 judiciously, from the great majority of continental botanists, espe- 

 cially Bridel and Schwsegrichen, regarding the limits of species and 

 the value to be attached to distinctive marks, that for the most part 

 British muscologists were content to take the species as they found 

 them in the 'Muscologia,' without at all referring to continental 

 works, in which, apparently, so many spurious species existed. 

 Lately, however, the splendid ' Bryologia Europsea ' of two German 

 botanists — Bruch and Schimper, has been much consulted by our 

 muscologists, and I fear we are likely to go just as far into the oppo- 

 site extreme of hair-splitting. Undoubtedly, many of the plants 

 described as distinct in the Bryologia, are mere forms of others, and 

 occasionally the variations are so slight, that we cannot help regret- 

 ting that such trivial characters are employed in so valuable a work. 

 Yet still, in my opinion, and in that of many far better botanists, the 

 authors of the work in question are entitled to great praise for their 

 acuteness and discrimination in distinguishing many species undoubt- 

 edly distinct, but which had been hitherto confounded. The species 

 above figured is one of these. It was, I believe, first clearly describ- 

 ed as British by Mr. Spruce, in a very interesting paper on the mosses 

 of Teesdale, in the 'Annals of Natural History,' xiii. 197. Having 

 lately gathered most beautiful specimens of this splendid moss, on the 

 banks of the Findhorn, near Darnaway, about three miles from Forres, 

 Morayshire, where it grows plentifully associated with Bryum ventri- 

 cosum, Marchantia hemisphserica, and Asplenium viride, — I have 

 been led to examine it more particularly, and the result is, that I 

 think it a very distinct plant, and constant to its characters, which 

 are abundantly sufficient to keep it separate from Bartramia fontana, 

 with which it has hitherto been confounded. And 1 am induced to 

 trouble the readers of ' The Phytologist ' with a sketch and short de- 

 scription of it. 



Bartramia calcarea, Bruch & Schimper. Stems four to six inches 

 or more in height, densely caespitose, copiously branched with inno- 



