42 MR. GEORGE E. HUNT ON 



tity ; in 1865 it was still more sparing (not above a dozen 

 capsules) ; 1866 was so exceedingly wet a season, that the 

 plant could not have come up at all; in 1867 it again oc- 

 curred very sparingly; in 1868 it was plentiful, but de- 

 stroyed by the autumn rains before much of the fruit had 

 ripened; in 1869 again frequent, and would have been 

 plentiful, but the autumn rains again destroyed it whilst 

 the fruit was even more immature than in the preceding 

 year; in 1870 very plentiful, and abundance of it has come 

 to maturity. This moss always grows on dried mud. 



2. Phascum serratum ft is frequent every autumn on 

 clay and sandy banks at Mere. It occurs quite frequently 

 in cornfields at Bowdon, in damp seasons, coming up a few 

 weeks after the corn has been cut. In cornfields at 

 Bowdon its companions are Phascum muticum, Phascum 

 alternifolium, and Pottia truncata, and very rarely Tri- 

 chodon cylindricus. The latter never fruits in this dis- 

 trict. 



3. Phascum nitidum, frequent every autumn at Mere, 

 on clay and sandy banks ; it occurs elsewhere about Bow- 

 don on newly cut ditch-banks. 



4. Phascum rostellatum. On banks at Mere, with the 

 two previous species, but much more sparingly. It has 

 also been found in Sussex by Mr. Mitten, and was collected 

 there again last year by Mr. Davies. It is one of the 

 rarest of all the British mosses. 



5. Phascum sessile. Very rare at Mere. I collected it 

 in the autumn of 1869, and again in November 1870, in- 

 termixed very sparingly among Phascum serratum, from 

 which it is difficult to separate it, except with the aid of 

 the microscope ; with this it can be at once distinguished 

 from that species by its longer, more rigid, almost 

 entire leaves, with a very wide nerve. Phascum serratum 

 has no nerve; and the leaves are spinulosely serrated. 

 Phascum sessile was gathered in Sussex many years since ; 



