TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION D. 1063 
1. Salmon and trout, trout and char, and different species of char, may inter- 
preed and give rise to fertile hybrids. 
2. Hybrids raised from Lochleven trout eggs fertilised by salmon milt breed in 
their fourth year, similar to young femaie salmon kept under the same conditions. 
3. The anadromous instinct is not lost in these trout and salmon hybrids. 
4, Judging from the period of breeding in the foregoing hybrids, the male 
element is prepotent. 
5. In hybrids raised from Lochleven trout eggs fertilised by the milt of the 
American char, the male element would appear to be prepotent, if we judge 
simply by the colour of the offspring. 
6. In hybrids raised from American char eggs fertilised by the milt of the 
Lochleyen trout, the female element would appear to be prepotent, if we judge 
simply by the colour of the offspring. 
7. In hybrids raised from American char eggs fertilised by the milt of the - 
British char, the male element would appear to be prepotent, if we judge simply by 
the colour of the offspring. 
8. In all instances of hybridisation between different species, as between 
salmon and trout, or trout and char, numerous instances of malformation and 
great mortality occur among the offspring, but much less when two forms of char 
are intercrossed. 
9. In intercrossing hybrids both the eggs and milt were found to be fertile, but 
the malformations and mortality very great. The parents, however, at Howietoun 
are not yet of sufficient age to admit any safe deductions on this head. 
10. The age of the parent exercises great influence on the vitality of the 
offspring, for, when very young, we may expect a large percentage of malforma- 
tions, as well as dropsy and other diseases, in the offspring. 
3. On the Identification of the British Mosses by their Distinctive Characters. 
By Mrs. Farquuarson, Ff. RIS. 
Since the appearance of Dr. Braithwaite’s ‘ British Moss Flora,’ no advanced 
student of mosses can complain of the want of an adequate manual in the British 
language, yet no one who has commenced the study of this order of the Cryptogamia 
can have failed to experience some difficulty in the earlier stages of his work. 
Without wishing to depreciate the several valuable works on the subject, I have 
noticed the absence of any work which deals with the distinctive characters of 
mosses, apart from those of a general nature. I feel sure the want is much felt 
by young students, who find it difficult to classify mosses especially. The plan 
which I have found useful is to separate the essential differing characters of each 
genus in this manner :— 
Andreea.—tThe capsule splitting into valves, but adhering at its apex. 
This character alone isolates this genus from all others. It is also a help to 
have a plate or drawing near the description of each genus. 
The species in like manner. I have found it most desirable and useful to ascer- 
tain one (if not more than one) distinctive character, which can be readily carried 
in the mind’s eye, whereby a species can be recognised from its fellow in the same 
genus. 
4 On the Flora cf Caithness. By James F, Grant. 
At present there exists no published flora of Caithness, beyond the plant-list 
in ‘ Topographical Botany,’ and the various lists printed in the different reports of 
the Botanical Exchange Club and of the Botanical Record Club. The late 
Robert Dick, of Thurso, made an exhaustive examination of the flora of Caithness ; 
but he left no MS. notes, and his herbarium contains few Caithness specimens ; and 
such as there are seldom have any locality affixed. Owing to the absence of woods 
and forests, Caithness is singularly deficient in many of the more common British 
wild plants; and, as the county is generally low-lying, there is a paucity of alpine 
