Mr. Hardy on the Moss Flora of the Eastern Borders. 475 



"Flora of the Eastern Borders," contains 154 species; "Wincli's 

 " Flora ofNorthumberland and Durham," 193 ; Greville's "Flora 

 Edinensis," 169; Howie's Fifeshire Mosses ("Phytologist "), 

 190; Gardiner's "Flora of Forfarshire," 246; Baker's "North 

 Yorkshire," 309; "Bryologia Britannica," 448. The contri- 

 butions of recent years, more particularly those of the naturalists 

 of the West of Scotland, have raised the British Moss-Flora 

 to about 500 species ; still the Border Counties occupy a high 

 rank, if we take into consideration the limited area, and 

 the uniformity of its features. Mosses appear to indicate the 

 differences of the climate with sharper lineaments, than the 

 phsenogamous plants. The marked contrasts of cold and moisture, 

 dryness and warmth side by side, is the fact they reveal ; of 

 which the evidences are the curious intermixture of northern and 

 southern forms ; and the occurrence of the species of the south of 

 England on the coast, and of the natives of the Highlands and 

 "Wales, in the marshes, and among the higher hills. The Lichen 

 Flora had prepared us for this result ; that although the zephyrs 

 fan the valley into verdure, a raw icy air dominates the hill-top, 

 but yet not so unmitigated, but that in the sheltered recesses the 

 Mosses of the lower country and of the mountains sociably com- 

 bine ; while sporadic alpine Mosses are scattered like emigrants 

 over the campaign, far from their arctic home ; and the high 

 Btorm-beat sea-coasts attract wanderers from the hills to associate 

 with those that drink the salt spray ; or some of these latter, on 

 the other hand, penetrate far inland ; and thus like the curlew 

 find equally a dwelling on the chilly waste, as by the melancholy 

 shore. With us the mountain limestone performs a very insignifi- 

 cant part, as influencing the distribution of Mosses, in comparison 

 with the chalk and oolite elsewhere. Lime permeates more or less 

 the whole of our Border rocks, and I cannot point out any Moss 

 as peculiar to one rock rather than another. The red sand- 

 stone appears to have a more varied Flora, than the greywacke ; 

 but they so overlap, that no definite conclusion can be reached. 

 In Cheviot, the porphyries enjoy a monopoly of some species ; 

 but this is probably owing to there being no other rock to com- 

 pete with it, within sub-alpine limits ; and had there been sub- 

 stituted a more crumbling and soil-formir g rock, it would not 

 only have yielded the present denizens, but have enlarged their 

 amount. Owing to this, and the general dryness and bareness of 

 the Border hills, we can never expect to snatch the palm from 

 Yorkshire or the Highlands. 



