A HISTORY OF NOTTINGHAMSHIRE 



Some attention has been paid by the present writer to the moss flora 

 of Nottinghamshire, and has resulted in the discovery of a considerable 

 number of species not previously recorded. On the other hand, no 

 fewer than forty of the 134 species given in Hewitt's Flora still await 

 re-discovery. A large proportion of these should certainly turn up again, 

 but it is probable that some few were errors of identification. It is 

 scarcely likely, for instance, that such species as Dicranella secunda, Dicra- 

 noiveisia crispula, Dicranum /ongtfo/ium, Anoectangium compactum, and Ortbo- 

 thecium rufescens ever really occurred in the county. 



The moss flora of Nottinghamshire cannot be considered at all a rich 

 one, only 192 species together with some two dozen well-marked varieties 

 having as yet been recorded. The entire absence of the older Palaeozoic 

 and of igneous rocks, and the almost total absence of bog, combined with the 

 low elevation of the county, largely account for this comparative poverty. 



Sphagna are rare as the natural result of the draining of the bogs in 

 which they formerly flourished, and the few patches that still remain are 

 confined to the margins of the streams that run through the reclaimed 

 bog-land. The most noteworthy species is Sphagnum fallax, which has 

 only recently been recorded as a British species. 



The Magnesian Limestone is by far the most productive formation for 

 mosses in Nottinghamshire, as many as 136 species occurring upon it, and 

 forty-three of these have not as yet been found elsewhere in the county. 

 The best localities are Creswell Crags, Pleasley Vale, and the old lime- 

 stone quarries about Worksop, Warsop, Mansfield, Kirkby, and Bulwell. 

 Among the more noteworthy species are ; Tetraphis pellucida^ abundant 

 on tree stumps and banks at Pleasley Vale and elsewhere ; Pottia bryoides ; 

 Pottia Heimii, a maritime species first found by the Rev. A. Thornley on a 

 brick wall at South Leverton in the Trent Valley, and subsequently by the 

 writer in a magnesian limestone quarry at Worksop ; Tortula aloides and 

 T. marginata at Creswell Crags and other localities ; Earbula gracih's, 

 gathered by Mr. C. T. Musson, F.L.S., on a magnesian limestone wall at 

 Sutton in Ashfield, on 19 April, 1886 ; Weisia tenuis, abundant on a 

 vertical face of rock in a stone quarry at Mansfield ; Zygodon Mougeotii at 

 Creswell Crags ; Bryum pendulum and B. pseudo-triquetrum at Mansfield, 

 etc. ; Mnium subglobosum at Sutton in Ashfield ; Eurhynchium pumilum at 

 Creswell Crags, and E. megapolttanum near Newstead ; Plagiothecium 

 depressum at G rives Wood, Kirkby ; Amblystegium irriguum and Hypnum 

 Sendtneri in quarries about Worksop. 



On the Bunter sandstone about thirty species are found which are 

 peculiar to this formation. Most of the Sphagna are confined to it ; 

 Dicranum montanum occurs in the Birklands, Sherwood Forest ; Rhacomi- 

 trium heterostichum on a vertical face of sandstone in the Church Cemetery 

 at Nottingham ; the beautiful ' luminous moss ' (Schistostega osmundacea] 

 is still to be found in the caves in the Church Cemetery where Jowett and 

 Howitt first noticed it over eighty years ago ; Bryum roseum, one of the 

 handsomest of British mosses, grows abundantly by the stream at Budby 

 in Sherwood Forest ; Erachythecium salebrosum has been gathered near 



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