122 



The Naturalist. 



«ind beauty of the dragon-flies, which were hawking in great numbers 

 over all the many marshy places so numerous on the heaths. A 

 respectable collection might have been netted from some of these 

 marshes. Dipterous insects were in great profusion, and some of 

 them very speedily made known their presence ; he would be a thick- 

 skinned individual indeed who could go through a hot sunny day 

 collecting without thinking, if not using, strong language at these 

 blood-thirsty brutes. 



Altogether the general aspect of the Forest presents rather the 

 appearance of an immense park than of a dense wood, the idea we are 

 apt to associate with the name. Good roads run through it in every 

 direction, and even in the thickest and best woods there is no difficulty 

 in getting about, as is so often the case in our woods, owing to the 

 thick underwood. The open character of the woods is said to be due 

 to the former browsing of the commoners' cattle on the brambles and 

 other undergrowth. It is a fact, too, that one of the chief character- 

 istics of the New Forest is that it presents less wooded than open 

 land. Another peculiarity is the way in which it is parcelled out into 

 " enclosures," that is, many of the woods are enclosed all round with 

 palings, and these enclosures seem frequently named from the keepers 

 who look after them — thus, Fletcher's enclosure, Broadley's ehclosure, 

 Jones' enclosure, &c. As near as can be ascertained, the extent of 

 the Forest is, from east to west fifteen miles, and from north-west to 

 south-east twenty miles, embracing some 91,000 acres. 



This concludes my paper ; one equally long might be written on 

 the intensely interesting historical associations of the Forest, but this 

 would be rather out of the province of a Natural History Club. 



Yorkshire Mosses. — Dr. Wesley has sent us specimens of Didymodon 

 luHdus, D. cylindricus, Trichostomum tophaceurriy and some others 

 recently gathered by him near Wetherby ; also Hypmim cuspidatum var. 

 which appears to be very close to var. |3. pungens, Schimp. , and to which 

 it may possibly be referred. As pointed out, however, by Dr. Braith- 

 waite and Mr. H. Boswell, to whom specimens have been submitted, it 



difiers in not having 7-amulis circinnatis, .fol. ram. omnibus arete 



convolutis.^^ 



Huddersfield, Oct. 11th, 1877. 



