x PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION 



species to which I refer as examples, believing, 

 that here again, the dislike that is felt by so many 

 to their Latin titles, might act as a deterrent if 

 only the latter appeared. And herein has lain my 

 chief difficulty, for there really are no truly 

 " popular " names, for the simple reason that the 

 plants themselves have never appealed to a demo- 

 cratic audience. With the Mosses I have en- 

 deavoured to make the best of the material at 

 hand by simply adopting the English names given 

 in Wilson's " Bryologia Britannica," unsatisfactory 

 as these only too often are, more especially since, 

 in many instances, his classification has been 

 considerably altered, so that the English term that 

 he uses, does not now strictly correspond with the 

 modern scientific one. With regard to the Liver- 

 worts the difficulty has lain in another direction. 

 The most recent English names, so far as I know, 

 are those contained in Dr. M. C. Cooke's " Guide 

 to the British Hepaticse," published many years ago 

 in Science Gossip. The classification there used 

 divides the tribe, in the first place, into three 

 groups, to which he gives the respective generic 

 appellations of "Scale Mosses," "Liverworts " and 

 " Crystal worts." The first of these seems to me 

 to be open to the inherent objection that it implies 

 that the special plants to which it is applicable are 

 mosses of some kind, which of course is not so. 

 Then, although at one time, no doubt, " liverwort " 

 was confined to a few species only, it has of late 



