1858.] THIRSK NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. 353 



Specimens were exhihited of Nujjhar pumila, from Argyle- 

 shire and Shropshire, and a cultivated example of Aremonia 

 agrimonioides . 



Mr. J. H. Davies laid before the meeting the following notices, 

 in each case exhibiting specimens of the Mosses from the loca- 

 lities mentioned : — 



Orthotrichum obtusifolium, Schrad., 0. gymnostomum, Blytt. — 

 This species, although treated by Bruch and Schimper as an in- 

 habitant of Britain, was unknown as such by our bryologists 

 till 1855, and is not included in Wilson^s work. It has been 

 found in Gloucestershire by Mr. Beach, in the neighbourhood 

 of Cheltenham, where it grows on old walls, on an Ash-tree, 

 and on the trunk of an Elm, in the latter case associated 

 with O. diaphanwn and Zygodon viridissimus. Mr. Wilson 

 met with it in South-east Yorkshire, in September, 1855, in 

 a locality to which he gives the following directions. — " Below 

 York, near the river-side (east bank), on an Ash-tree, near the 

 ground, about two and a half or three miles from York, where 

 the river bends towards the west, and where a cartroad leads from 

 a house or farm surrounded by large trees ;" and Mr. Kirk has 

 also had the courtesy to supply me with specimens from another 

 Gloucestershire locality, a solitary Ash-tree, near Mickleton 

 tunnel. ^ 



Now that it is satisfactorily established as a British species, 

 it is not unlikely that it may be found in various localities ; and, 

 if sought for at the proper season, what is yet a desideratum, the 

 fruit also. The following description is taken from the ' Bryologia 

 Europsea^ : — " Tufts small, pulvinato-csespitose. Stems half to 

 one inch long, simple or branched dichotomously. Leaves of 

 the branches and lower part of the stem small, elongate, ovate; 

 upper broader, ovate, spreading, imbricated when dry ; those of 

 the perichsetium larger and broader: all concave, margins flat, 

 nerves weak, vanishing considerably below the apices of the 

 leaves. Pedicels short, contracted suddenly into the necks of 

 the capsules. Capsules mostly submerged, oblong-pyriform, long- 

 necked, with eight faint striations, when dry, contracted below 

 the mouth, 8-plicate. Operculum convex from the base, acutely 

 conical. Calyptra campanulate, covering half the capsule, acu- 

 minate, irregularly plicate, pale brown above, shortly lobed and 

 paler below, naked or slightly hairy, roughish externally; outer 



N. S. VOL. II. 2 z 



