34 REMINISCENCES OF 



then well known to every student, but no one had 

 yet discovered organs with similar functions in any 

 of the cryptogamic forms of vegetation, and I was 

 ambitious of making this discovery. Resting after 

 a long ramble on the brow of Oliver's Mount, I 

 found close within my reach a fine tuft of the well- 

 known moss, Polytrichum commune. On examining 

 some of these objects with my pocket lens, I dis- 

 covered at the apex of each stem a lovely little cup, 

 formed of small coloured leaflets, and which looked 

 very like minute flowers. I wondered whether or 

 not the organs so many botanists were in search of 

 were enclosed within that little cup ; and, indeed, it 

 was in such a cup they were found years afterwards 

 by Hoffmeister, Unger, and others, who followed in 

 their steps. I little dreamed that what I was in 

 search of was actually under my eyes ; but these 

 reproductive organs of the cryptogams differ alto- 

 gether in form and aspect from those of the flower- 

 ing plant, though functionally identical. The labours 

 of many men who were led into the right path by 

 Suminski and Hoffmeister were needed to clear the 

 mysteries by which the subject was invested. 



During the earlier part of my student life I for- 

 warded to the Zoological Society of London a 

 memoir on the rare birds found in the vicinity of 

 Scarborough. This was one of the earliest of my 

 attempts at drawing up a scientific memoir, still, 

 some of the facts recorded in it were subsequently 

 referred to by Yarrell in his " History of the 



