52 HISTORY OF BRITISH MOSSES. 



peculiar Mosses vtdtli a gibbous capsule, a membrane across 

 the moutli, and a very peculiar habit, of which Dr. Brown 

 has formed his genus Leptostonmm." Por further particu- 

 lars on this subject we refer our readers to Dr. Brown's 

 admirable work on the flora of New Holland ; and those 

 who do not wish to drink too deep, will find an agreeable 

 draught of more moderate dimensions in the ' Encycloptedia 

 Edinensis/ Kxi. " Musci," p. 6. 



To advert again to our own flora, it is gratifying to see 

 that this branch of botanical science is engaging the care- 

 ful and assiduous attention of botanists. This is proved 

 by the labours of Hewitt, Watson, Professor E. Eorbes, and 

 still more recently by those of Professor Dickie of Belfast, 

 a well-known and successful student of Cryptogamiu, whose 

 papers on the altitudinal range of Mosses in Aberdeenshire, 

 etc., recorded in the transactions of the Botanical Society 

 and British Association, show that there is much to in- 

 terest the muscologist were he to follow in their steps. 

 We conclude this chapter with a few statistics, which may 

 show the reader the proportion the Mosses bear to other 

 families of plants. 



Miiller, in a " synoptical table'"' appended to his ' Syn- 

 opsis' published in 1851, calculates the number of species 



