48 FIRST FORMS OF VEGETATION. 
and rocks in alpine districts in this country with 
its rich golden foliage and thick ferruginous 
downy roots in the utmost profusion, appears to 
be wholly unknown upon the Continent. While, 
on the other hand, the feathered Neckera (Weckera 
pennata), which is not uncommon in Switzerland, 
has been found in only one station in Great 
Britain, viz., on the trunk of a beech at Fothering- 
ham, near Forfar, by Mr. Drummond. The same 
may be said regarding Haller’s feather-moss 
(Aypnum Hallert), which is abundant in Switzer- 
land, and in this country occurs only on rocks 
near the summit of Ben Lawers. Two summers 
ago I discovered, on the western shore of Loch 
Corruisk, in the Isle of Skye, great quantities of 
the Myurium Hebridarum of Schimper, a moss 
which had previously been found only once 
before in South Uist, one of the Hebrides. It is 
somewhat abundant in the Azores and in Madeira. 
In habit and appearance it differs totally from all 
the British mosses, and resembles many of the 
New Zealand species. It has a decidedly foreign 
look, and is exceedingly beautiful, bearing some 
resemblance, in its crisp, glossy, silken foliage, to 
the Weckera crispa, only that it grows in tufts on 
the ground, instead of in long pendent wreaths. 
The fact of such a conspicuous moss having 
remained so long unknown, although at Corruisk 
