104 HYPNUM spEciosuM. [Apnl, 



EXTRACTS PROM COERESPONDENCE. 



Hypmim speciosum, etc. 



From J. B. Wood, M.D. 



You will see I have found Br. Marratii again at Southport, in 

 an entirely new locality, and six miles in an opposite direction 

 to where it grew before. It occurs there in abundance, and does 

 not fruit until late in November or early in December, as you 

 will see by the examples sent. The place where it grows is locally 

 known as the "Bulrush Stack," a sheet of water in a valley 

 amongst the sand-hills, about three miles south of the town, and 

 very near the sea, on the swampy margins of this lake, and also B. 

 calophyllum, B. Warneum (fruiting at the same time), Hypnum 

 lycopodioides, H. polygamum, H. salebrosum. H. Elodes, Meesia 

 uliginosa, etc., are all found plentifully, and a visit to this place 

 in May or June would be productive of a rich harvest of the 

 above, most of which would be then found fruiting luxuriantly. 

 I have also met with the very rare H. speciosum, but cannot ex- 

 actly tell where I got it there, and have but very little of it : this 

 is another addition to the very few stations known for this splen- 

 did and beautiful species. Doubtless it will be found again here- 

 after. There is however one discrepancy as regards the character 

 of my plant, which I think is deserving of note. Mr. "Wilson, in 

 Bry. Britannica, emphatically says, no less than three times in 

 his description, that it is essentially synoicous ; and that by this 

 circumstance it is distinguished from its congeners, some of which 

 are very close allies, and with difficulty distinguished, from the 

 intricacy of the features raore especially identifying them. My 

 Moss is unquestionably both monoicous and synoicous. In the 

 first I examined, I found perigonia or male flowers to the num- 

 ber of five or six, before meeting with a single synoicous flower, 

 and in it there were only two arcliegonia, and next to that a 

 perichcetium, where of course there were no antheridia. In other 

 specimens the flowers were neai'ly all hermaphrodite or synoicous. 

 That there are male flowers, as I have already stated, is unques- 

 tionable, and therefore, judging from the remarks in Br. Brit., 

 it may probably be H. remotifolium of Greville, as the monoi- 

 cous and synoicous inflorescence of this species, is said to be a 



