XXXVl PEOCEEDINGS, JULY. 



desire of the Society to further the important object of the federation 

 of British and American geologists. 

 Mr. R. M. Johnston seconded the motion, which was agreed to. 



A RAEE MOSS. 



Mr. Bastow submitted a specimen of Daivsonia supei-ba, one of 

 the most magnificent of known mosses, collected by Miss S. 

 Gerard, near Ulverstone, on the North-West Coast of Tasmania, and 

 gave a few descriptive particulars of the plant, only one species of 

 which had yet been discovered and that only once by Mr. Gunn in 

 Tasmania. The genus was confined to Australasia. 



TASMANIAN HEPATIC^. 



Mr. R. A. Bastow, read a paper giving a full list and description of 

 the Tasmanian Hejpaticce. Accompanying the paper were 35 plates 

 illustrating about 140 species. This very valuable paper will be a great 

 acquisition to the Journal of the Society, covering, as it does, 228 pages 

 of manuscript. Mr. Bastow said as much of his paper was of a technical 

 character he would merely read a part of the introduction thereto, 

 stating that in popularly-written botanical hand books the Hepaticai are 

 usually not described, the authors chiefly confining their attention to 

 plants of larger growth ; the phanerogamous plants receive full notice 

 the ferns and iycopods may also be described, but here the lino is usually 

 drawn. The Mosses, Hepatiece, Lichens, and Fungi, are dismissed with 

 some such remark as, " that they are distributed throughout the world, 

 and are of no economical importance," "or that they form beautiful 

 transition from low to high organisation," and " that they are 

 evascular." Few persons ever dreamed that earthworms were of any 

 importance until Darwin observed and described their habits ; and 

 probably quite as few are aware of the aid lent by the Mosses and 

 Hepatiece to the economy of nature in the formation of peat ; it is not 

 at all unlikely that the Hepatiece cushioned the swampy ground ages 

 ago, and contributed their share in the structure of coal for the use of 

 man at the present day. It may, therefore, not be wasted time if we 

 bestow a little attention to the N atural Orders of Australasian Cryptogams 

 containinj? as they do, the more minute forms of plant life. He essayed 

 during the last session of this Society to describe to the best of his 

 ability the Tasmanian Mosses, and now ventured upon a description of 

 the Hepatiece. Doubtless many errors may be found that a more 

 experienced and abler pen would have avoided, but as the reference to 

 descriptions is the first necessity in the study of Hepatiece, even if that 

 reference be but a poor one, and as the subject has not yet been taken 

 in hand since the publication of " Hooker's Flora Tasmania," with the 

 exception of the valuable supplement in Vol. XI. of Baron von Mueller's 

 "Fragmenta Phytographise Australise," and as those who reside far 

 away from the city, and are desirous to know something about the 

 Hepatiece that grow in such profusion in the moist gullies and by the 

 banks of streams, and yet have no hand-book on the subject that they 

 can consult, he ventures to hope that the following compilation may 

 to some extent be useful, its many shortcomings notwithstanding. The 

 entire structure of some of the Hepatiece so resemble the Mosses as to 

 render them popularly regarded as identical, but they may be distin- 

 guished therefrom by their soft, spongey lax texture; by their leaves 

 being destitute of nerves ; by their frequently less vivid colours ; and 

 by their affecting moister situations. They vary in size as do the 

 Mosses, from 6in. long or more, and remarkable for their beauty as well 

 as their size, to very minute capillary forms scarcely distinguishable as 

 plants without the aid of the microscope. The fruiting specimens are 

 not so easily detected as they are in Moss plants, but that apparent 

 deficiency is more than counter-balanced by the numerous and exquisite 



