IOO 



SCIENCE- G OSSIP. 



consists of a narrow wooded gorge running from 

 the heatliland, here about 1.000 feet above the 

 sea-level, right down to the beach. Throughout 

 the length of this combe a tiny stream rushes and 

 falls in a series of miniature cascades. 



" The Tors " consist of a series of peaks rising 

 above the vicarage of Lynmouth, and including the 

 beautiful Alpine garden of Mr. A. L. Ford, of 

 Gwynallt. In these peaks the rocks crop out in a 

 most picturesque manner. 



" Lee Bay " is a small bay or cove about two 

 miles to the west of Lynmouth. Tt is approached 

 by a road made by the side of a little stream in 

 a wood, and contains a fine dripping bank and 

 waterfall. 



" Parracombe " will be remembered, by those who 

 have travelled here by coach from Barnstaple, for 

 its steep and dangerous hills ; it is a village about 

 six miles west from Lynmouth, on the confines of 

 Exmoor, in which it was, no doubt, formerly in- 

 cluded. There appear to be springs and running- 

 water in all parts of the village, and it would 

 doubtless repay further research. 



" Valleys of the East and West Lyns." These 

 we have not explored beyond Bockford in the 

 former and Lynbridge in the latter. Further ex- 

 ploration is desirable. 



" Exmoor " in this list refers solely to that 

 portion of the moor situate near Saddle Gate and 

 Pinkery (more properly Pinkworthy) Pond. Saddle 

 Gate is a gate in the boundary wall of Devon and 

 Somerset, and as this portion is in Somerset, and 

 to a great extent drains to the south into the 

 Barle, it perhaps should not be included in the 

 same sub-district as Lynmouth ; but as one of my 

 favourite collecting-grounds is the boundary wall 

 itself and the immediately adjacent moor on both 

 sides which drains northward into the Lyn. it may 

 be convenient to group the locality under Lyn- 

 mouth, from which it is only some five miles 

 distant. This moor is very different from the 

 ordinary conception of a moor. It consists here 

 of a bog some 1,500 feet above the sea-level, and 

 is chiefly composed of coarse sedgy herbage inter- 

 spersed with sphagnums and other mosses, with 

 a little heather and whortlebeny in the drier 

 portions. The whole moor is dreary and wild, but 

 very interesting from an antiquarian point of view, 

 on account of the number of tumuli and barrows 

 scattered over the district. 



A few words are due to the fences in North 

 Devon, which form such splendid collecting-grounds 

 for mosses. They are made in a way that I have not 

 noticed elsewhere. A wall of stones is erected — 

 often some five feet or more thick at the base. The 

 interstices are filled in with earth, and a hedge or 

 frequently trees are grown at the top. The result 

 is that stone mosses, bank mosses, and tree-trunk 

 mosses are all found on the same fence. 



In the scientific arrangement and nomenclature 

 I have followed Messrs. Dixon and Jameson's 



"Student's Handbook of British Mosses." The- 

 sign * indicates a sub-species. 



The Sphagnaceae, the first of the eighteen 

 families of Acrocarpous mosses, are fairly well re- 

 presented by six species and one sub-species ; but 

 as some of them are impossible to recognise in the 

 field, and it is equally impossible to gather a tuft 

 from every patch of sphagnum in such a locality as 

 Exmoor, there are doubtless others yet to be found. 

 Sphagnum cymiifoliwn Ehrh. is common on the 

 moor, while its variety congestum Schp. is occa- 

 sionally to be seen. 8. euspidatum Ehrh., S. inter- 

 medium Hoff., 8. subseeundum Nees, and S. a&utifo- 

 Hum Ehrh. are all common, the last also occurring 

 at Desolation. 8. rigidum Schp. I have found round 

 Pinkery Pond, and *8. papillosum grows with 

 8. cymbifolium on the highest portion, 1,500 feet 

 above the sea. 



Of the Andreaeaceae I have not found any 

 representatives ; but of the Teteaphidaceae,. 

 Tetraplm pelluckla Hedw. was found at Desolation. 



The Polytrichaceae are, as might be expected, 

 one of the great features of the district ; one or 

 other of the genus Polytriclmm being on every bank 

 and wall. The species noticed are Catharinea 

 undulata W. and M. in the East Lyn Valley and at 

 Desolation. ; Polytricli um nanum Neck, on the North- 

 Walk, Lynton. ; P. aloides Hedw. generally distri- 

 buted, those from Exmoor being very luxuriant. ; 

 P. urnigervm L. on the Countisbury road; P.juni- 

 perinvm Willd. on the North Walk, The Tors, East 

 Lyn Valley, etc. ; *P. strictum Banks, Exmoor- 

 commonly ; P. alpinvm L. Exmoor fairly common ; 

 P. formosum Hedw. in East Lyn Valley ; P. com- 

 mune L. West Lyn Valley, Desolation, Exmoor, etc. 



The little family of the Buxbatjmiaceae is 

 represented by Diphyseium foVomm Mohr., "found 

 sparingly on spray-covered stones at Watersmeet,. 

 and at Saddle Gate. 



The large and somewhat cumbrous family 

 Dicranaceae gives us Biiriclmm liomomallum 

 Hpe., a single tuft of which was found on a 

 dripping bank at Pinkery Pond ; Ceratodon pur- 

 pureus Brid. on The Tors, also at Ilkerton, Saddle 

 Gate, Watersmeet, etc. ; Bicranella heteromalla 

 Schp. on the North Walk, Ilkerton, Parracombe, 

 and Exmoor ; B. varia Schp. on the Esplanade cliffs 

 at Lynmouth, and at Brendon ; and B. eervimlata 

 Schp. from Exmoor, where it revels in the cuttings 

 in the peat. Bicranon-eisia cirrata Lab. was found 

 on Summer House Hill, and also on a wall above 

 Saddle Gate ; Campylopsisp>y r \formis Brid. sparingly 

 on the Esplanade at Lynmouth, but was abundant 

 at Exmoor. C. flexuosus, a single tuft of which I 

 found at Exmoor, was, I fear, overlooked among 

 the ever-varying forms of Bicranum scoparium 

 Hedw. that is so abundant throughout the district p 

 while its larger neighbour, B. majusTum., was only 

 noticed in the East Lyn Valley and at Desolation, 

 where the somewhat sphagnoid-looking Leucolrryum 

 glaucum Schp. was common. 



