Mosses and Liverworts of an Industrial City. 121 



The absence of the two former from the region of his travels 

 was considered worthy of note by that well-known Yorkshire 

 bryologist, Richard Spruce. Writing to Sir Wm. Hooker, he 

 said* : ' Since I set foot in South America, now more than four 

 years ago, I have not once seen Funaria hygrometrica, the 

 moss, which as someone has said, more poetically than truly, 

 " Springs up wherever the wild Indian has lighted his fire." 

 I have seen hundreds of places in Amazonian forests where 

 Indians, wild and tame, have lighted fires, and the plants 

 which spring up in such places are not mosses .... Ccralodon 

 purpureus is an almost constant companion of Funaria in 

 Europe and has, like it, the reputation of being cosmopolite, 

 but I have never seen it here.' Funaria fruits in Hunslet, 

 and is normal in habit. The other two react in special ways 

 to very severe conditions. The typical silvery green julaceous 

 branches springing from below the inflorescence of the Bryum 

 are replaced by very short bud-like branches which arise all 

 along the stem, having the appearance of green specks scattered 

 over the dense blackish cushions ; they are easily detached 

 and aid vegetative distribution. Ceratodon may occasionally 

 be seen in an almost unrecognisable state in which groups of 

 cells of otherwise dead leaf and stem tissues make a filamentous 

 growth ; the dark green protoplasm abandons the old tissues 

 and may produce a considerable amount of protonema from 

 which moss plants have been seen developing. 



When discussing some of the problems of their city dis- 

 tribution with Mr. C. A. Cheetham, he suggested that the Bryum 

 is, in England, constantly associated with man, pointing out 

 that whereas its two companions compete with the natural 

 vegetation of heathlands, one never expects to see Bryum 

 argenteum except on paths, roadsides, roofs, walls or disturbed 

 soil. The habitats described by authors are not inconsistent 

 with that suggestion, and it is a point worth determining to 

 what extent in England it is dependent upon man. 



The list of one hundred and seven species, comprising 

 about ten per cent, of the British Bryophytes, represents the 

 flora as it exists to-day, all but two having been seen recently. 

 It has a negative as well as a positive interest ; one misses 

 many of the large very common Feather Mosses ( Hypnum) ; 

 the Grimmias, Bristle Mosses (Orthotrichum), Metzgeria and 

 Frullania. Species worthy of special notice, included, are 

 Naked Apple-Moss (Discelium nudum), the Earth Mosses 

 (Ephemerum serratum and Acaulon muticum), Barbula lurida 

 and White-leaved Fork-Moss (Leucobryum glaucum). The 

 last was believed to have disappeared from Adel Black Moor, 



* Notes of a Botanist on the Amazon and Andes, Vol. I., p. 382. 

 1917 April 1. 



