— 92 — 



the leaf-margins reflexed, but in the propagula they are identical. The other one 

 30/3/08, I should also refer to P. denticulatum , but as var. laetum, so far as can be 

 told from the vegetative characters only.' H. N. D." 



Twenty-first Annual Report (1916) pp. 167-168 — 



" Hypnum palustre P^uds. vars., boulders in Tyne, Chollerford (67), July /05; 

 R. Tees, Widdy Bank (66), Aug. /96, stones in Wharfe, Ilkley (64), July /96, leg. 

 H. N. D. 'I asked Mr. Dixon if .he could throw any light on the difficult var. 

 subsphaerocarpon, and he kindly sent the above specimens and the following very 

 interesting notes. It will, however, be observed that the effect is to make the 

 existing British records of var. suhsphaericarpon highly doubtful and exceedingly 

 difficult to verify. The most useful course for practical purposes has seemed to ba 

 that suggested by Mr. Dixon in his article on the Chollerford plant, and a descrip- 

 tion by Mr. Ingham of a new var. dolichoneuron, based on vegetative characters, 

 will be found in an appendix, and Mr. Dixon has kindly consented to the Choller- 

 ford gathering, distributed this year, being taken as the type specimens of the new 

 variety. Most, if not all, of the existing records for suhsphaericarpon can be 

 referred to the new variety.' P. G. M. R. 



"'I doubt this being a common var.; I have scarcely seen a British specimen 

 which I should refer to it with certainty. There is a very frequent var. which has 

 the leaves of the var. suhsphaericarpon and is often sterile, and this I believe is 

 what usually passes for it. But whenever I have found it fruiting the capsules 

 are elongate and cannot be brought under the var." H. N. D. Extract from 

 "Mosses of Northumberland," Berwickshire Naturalists' Club Proc. 1905; on 

 Chollerford plant above. 'A striking form, which I have gathered on boulders 

 partly submerged in several of our rivers in subalpine districts, having a robust 

 habit, large falcate leaves, and especially characterized by the very stout single 

 nerve, reaching well above two-thirds of the leaf. These' are the characters of 

 var. suhsphaericarpon B. & S. (except that the long single nerve in that var. is not 

 described as unusually stout), and I have received sterile plants so named, evi- 

 dently on the strength of the vegetative characters. I have, however, gathered 

 this plant in the R. Wharfe and elsewhere, bearing capsules of the typical form, 

 and this is the case with the Chollerford plant . . . It is quite clear therefore 

 that these vegetative characters are not always correlated with the type of capsule 

 of var. suhsphaericarpon, and there is some argument for giving our plant a new 

 varietal name. On the other hand I have gathered a plant in Teesdale (see note 

 below), and Mr. Binstead sends me a similar plant from Clifford, which with these 

 leaf characters combine a shorter and wider capsule than that of the type, and 

 which may be very fairly placed under the variety in question, although the cap- 

 sule by no means equals the large turgid fruit I have gathered in mountain streams 

 in the Pyrenees; they show an intermediate stage between the extreme Conti- 

 nental variety and the plant now under consideration ... I have gathered 

 a plant in Cumberland with both forms of capsule, long and narrow, and short 

 and turgid, upon the same stem ... It would seem that on the whole the 

 variety would have been better established upon the vegetative characters alone, 

 which would have comprised a fairly definite group of forms, including the plant 

 on which these remarks are based ... as w^H as the Continental plants 

 with large swollen capsules, on which Schleicher based his H. suhsphaericarpon 

 . . . . It is a curious fact that in the four localities in England and Scotland 

 in which I have gathered G. apocarpa var. alpicola ... it has always been 

 associated with the form or variety of H. palustre in question.' H. N. D. 



"Mr. Dixon has now erased the words var. suhsphaericarpon from the Tees- 

 dale specimens; the Clifford plant being annotated, 'not very marked var. in the 

 fruit, but may pass.'" 



Twenty-first Annual Report (19 16) p. 176 — 



"Hypnum palustre Huds. var. suhsphaericarpon B. & S. This var, of H. 

 palustre has proved a stumbling block to students of British Mosses. No doubt 



