PREFACE 



The object of the present work is to provide a practical 

 handbook of the mosses of our Islands in such a form as to be 

 as far as possible accessible to the considerable, and I hope 

 increasing number of students of these plants, many of whom find 

 the larger and more expensive works on the subject beyond their 

 means. Most bryologists have doubtless been asked to recommend 

 the most suitable book for the student, and have probably 

 experienced considerable difficulty in answering the question. 

 Wilson's Bryologia Britannica — the prince of bryological books — 

 is out of reach of many on account of its price, and is, after the 

 lapse of forty years, far from covering the whole field of British 

 mosses as they are known to us. Berkeley's Handbook is 

 similarly out of date (about 465 species are there described out of 

 some 600 as at present recognised) ; besides which some parts of 

 that work, the plates especially, leave much to be desired. 

 Hobkirk J s Synopsis, though containing much valuable information 

 in a small compass for one already well versed in bryology, is 

 somewhat too compressed to be of great service to the less 

 practised collector, nor has it the advantage of illustrations. 

 Braithwaite's splendid and elaborate work, still in the course of 

 publication, which has done so much to stimulate the study of 

 these plants in our country and which will doubtless remain our 

 standard work for many years to come, is of necessity published 

 at a price which puts it; out of the reach of many. There is 

 therefore, unquestionably, a demand for a modern book which 

 may serve to take the place of the older works in the hands of 

 the student, and which, while of modest pretensions in comparison 

 with such a work as the British Moss Flora, may be sufficiently 

 detailed to serve the purpose of the beginner as well as of the 

 more advanced bryologist. How far the present work fulfils these 

 requirements must be left to others to decide. 



With the above object in view it has been necessary to 

 compress the work into as small a space as is compatible with 

 clearness, in order to keep the price as low as possible. I have 

 therefore omitted many critical discussions which might properly 

 have found a place had the space at my command been larger ; 



