A HISTORY OF WORCESTERSHIRE 



The following are the more rare species not included in the pre- 

 ceding notes : — 



Archidium alternifolium, Schp. Malvern^ Funaria fasciculare, Schp. Malvern, Lees 



Lees Bryum lacustre, Brid. Harborne 



Dicranella secunda, Ldb. Malvern, GrifBths Neckera pumila, Hedw. Malvern, Lees 



Leucobryum glaucum, Schp. Lkkey Hill Brachythecium salebrosum, B. & S. Near 



Fissidens crassipes, Wils. Near Hahiowen Alfrkk 



Pottia Starlceana, C. M. 'J Eurhynchium tenellum, Milde. Malvern, 



Tortula pusilla, Mitt. > Malvern, Lees Lees 



Weissia crispa, Mitt. J Hypnum vernicosum, Ldb. Wyre Forest 



Orthotrichum anomalum, var. saxatile, Milde. H. uncinatum, Hedw. Moseley 



Malvern, Lees Hylocomium brevirostre, B. & S. Malvern, 



O. cupulatum, HofFm. Newbould-on-Stour Lees 



Comparing the moss flora of Worcestershire with that of the 

 bordering counties, we find that — 



Herefordshire has 280 species. But Herefordshire has a larger 

 area, a more humid climate, extensive heathlands, marshes and bogs, and 

 a range of mountains prolific in montane species, and has been more 

 thoroughly examined. 



Shropshire has 251 species. This county has nearly twice the 

 area, and a very much greater area of waste and woodland. It has not 

 been exhaustively investigated, and will probably be found to have as 

 large a moss flora as Herefordshire. 



Staffordshire has 273 species. This county, nearly twice the size of 

 Worcestershire, has twice the area of wood and waste land, has extensive 

 moorlands and bogs, and numerous rapid streams abounding in mosses. 



Warwickshire has 245 species. This county has about the same 

 area as Worcestershire, but has no high hills, is poor in limestone rocks, 

 but its northern woodlands are more boggy, and yield many species not 

 yet observed in Worcestershire. It has been more systematically worked, 

 and is probably more fully recorded. 



LIVERWORTS {Hepaticce) 



These plants are closely allied to the mosses, and would be included 

 with them by unbotanical observers. But they differ in having cap- 

 sules opening by valves, and with the exception of Riccia, in the 

 presence of spiral bodies (elaters) among their spores. Although 

 found in every sort of habitat, they are on the whole more dependent 

 on the presence of moisture than the mosses, and on the softer soils they 

 are crowded out by the more vigorous growth of the flowering plants ; 

 hence in a highly-cultivated district like Worcestershire, where bogs, 

 marshes and waste heath-lands are few and far between, the hepatic 

 flora is a very meagre one, only forty species being recorded for the county. 

 The richest localities are the marshy banks of streams like Dowles Brook 

 in Bewdley Forest. Here is found the singular but beautiful T'richocolea 

 tomentella and Cephalozia bicuspidata, C. multijiora, Pellia epiphylla and 

 Aneura sinuata. On the water-splashed rocks of some of the streams near 



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