﻿78 



SOME NEW ZEALAND MOSSES AND HEPATIC2E. 



By Heney Boswell, M.A. 

 M\ny able and industrious collectors have contributed to our 

 knowledge of the charming cryptogamic flora of New Zealand, and 

 it has been somewhat thoroughly investigated and described ; but 

 it will always remain to the bryologist one of the most fascinating 

 in the world and continue to hold out hopes of novelty. 



Mr. Cosmo Melvill has lately forwarded me a very interesting 

 parcel for examination, being the cryptogamic portion of the rich 

 and beautiful collection made in the neighbourhood of Nelson, Grey- 

 mouth, and the Paparoa range of hills, by Mr. E. Helms, sent to 

 England in consequence of his lamented death. These localities 

 are situated in what is now called the South Island, a phrase to be 

 understood to signify what was formerly, and when Sir J. D. 

 Hooker's Handbook of the X<iv Zealand Flora was published, called 

 the Middle Island; the division of that time being about as 

 unequal as if Britain were said to consist of three sections, 

 Scotland, England, and the Isle of Wight ; and it certainly seems 

 an improvement to have a North and South Island for the main 

 divisions of the country, while its little southern appendage will be 

 called by its other name of Stewart Island. In this present South 

 Island is situate the spot made classic by its frequent mention in 

 the Mnsn Exotiei of Sir W. J.Hooker, where " In siuu />»«/.-,/ />%«>/ 

 dicto" repeatedly occurs, as the locality of rare and beautiful 

 species. This work is quoted in numerous instances throughout 

 the Handbook, and its excellent figures, both of Mosses and 

 Hepaticse, will always be found of great use to the student, and 

 in the following enumeration the Handbook is constantly referred 

 to. The Cryptogams formed but a small portion of the collection 

 made by Mr. Helms, consisting as it does of some 2000 sheets of 

 admirably preserved phanerogamic plants, now in the possession 

 of Mr. Melvill; but with these the present article has nothing to do, 

 though their excellent condition demands a passing word. 



The method of arrangement here adopted is generally that 

 followed in the Handbook of the Neu /■ > <u<l I ni of Sir J. D. 

 Hooker, and the nomenclature used for the most part the same. 

 This appeared likely to be on the whole the most convenient and 

 acceptable plan in the eyes of students, who will probably have 

 been accustomed to the use of that manual.* In the few cases 

 where a newer name has been taken as being manifestly better, the 



accidental omission of a species in^the Handbook, which is the more remarkable 

 as the author was its original finder, many years ago. It is this :— Gampylopns 

 Synops. Muse. vol. i. p. .(8'J, 1850). " Ad Insel Bay, Nov® Zelandife, J. Hooker." 

 It is a handsome, tall, and rather slender moas, its leaves from a broad base 

 capillary-elongate, and when old acquiring the golden yellow tint so frequent in 

 the genus, I have fertile specimens, gathered a few years ago in the neigh- 

 bourhood of the hot springs of Taupo. 



