98 



The Naturalist. 



B. rutahulum^ and in one place on tlie ground itself with Eurht/ncMum 

 striatum^ I am now about to outrage certain scientific canons by 

 laying stress upon the facies of this moss as the best way to recognise 

 it amongst commoner allied species. In its facies, then — a thing of 

 no account scientifically, difficult to express in words on paper, and 

 yet on the collecting field of great value, and by which the eye with 

 a little training can distinguish most things, from its wonderful habit 

 of collating minute differences, and reasoning unconsciously about 

 them — in its facies B. salebrosum bears a yery strong resemblance to 

 B. rutahulum ; quite as close as that between the lowland B. striatum 

 and the montane H. hi-evirodre^ or that between CylindrotJiecium con- 

 cinnum and E. pilifermn ; but the prevailing hue of B. rutabulum is 

 a green of a deep ordinary character, and lacks a golden-tinge which 

 is to my eyes very characteristic of B. salebrosum, its younger shoots 

 especially. Now that I know both species I can readily distinguish 

 them by their colour alone. But there is another difference which it 

 does not need a lens to find ; the barren shoots of B. salebrosum 

 appear more plumose, more piliferous-leaved as it were, than in B. ruta- 

 bulum — a fact not owing to the leaves being really longer hair-pointed, 

 but to their being comparatively more gradually narrowed to a point, 

 and closer set upon the stem. These observations, which I give for 

 what they are worth, are the result of several examinations of the two 

 mosses in situ ; and although some will say they have " no scientific 

 value," my reason for giving them at such length is that I think they 

 may possibly prove of some little service to others, tyros in moss- 

 study like myself, who may feel inclined to go into the field and bring 

 home B. salebrosum ! For books do not tell us the sort of thing I 

 have tried at. The magnum opus (in a scientific sense) upon mosses 

 may or may not have appeared ; but whether because the study of 

 physiognomy — that botanical like that facial — is deemed beneath the 

 attention of scientific describers ; or because time and type are not 

 inexhaustible enough to tell us everything ; or because the compilers 

 of handbooks to the ologies do not know in the living state in the 

 field the objects they daily define in the study : it is certain that 

 books often tell us anything but what beginners would find of most 

 practical and immediate use, leaving us humbler naturalists, as we 

 struggle onwards, to communicate by letter to brothers in trouble those 

 " sure tips " to species differentiation which have come to us — a gift 

 from the Spirit of all Nature, only after patient inquiry and loving 

 labour. , 



After this gossipy digression I return to B. salebrosum. When once 



