50 



TfiE NATURALIST. 



Schimiper^s latest and present conclusion is, that Hedwig had a form of H. 

 Kneiffil, ( Bryol. Eur op. ) as his example when he published his H. aduncum 

 in the Stirpes Cryptogamicce, ( vol. 4, t. 2L) 



Hooker and Taylor, (in Mmcol. Brit.) regarded a^ the Hedwigian species, 

 what is called cemmutcdum var. falcatum, in Bryol. Barojx but which is 

 now found to be a distinct species, whether If. falcatum of Bridel remains to 

 be proved, and it is safest for the present to keep it separate, {H. controver- 

 sum, Wils. MSS.) 



For, at the most, Bridel's H. falcatum is only the aquatic form of the 

 species, bearing as little resemblance to the type as H. Vallisclausce does to 

 H. fillcinum ; so that Bridel's description is essentially deficient as a guide 

 to the knowledge of the species, and his right to a priority of the specific 

 tiame becomes very questionable, and should not be insisted upon. He could 

 not have had any clear knowledge of the species, if H. commutatum var. 

 .falcatum really belongs to it, and therefore falcatum^ must be treated as a 

 trivial, (unimportant) name, to be rejected when no longer convenient, Iby 

 the first intelligible describer of the species. 



Dr. Swartz sent the moss now called H. exannulatum (Bryol. Europ. ) 

 to Dawson Turner, in 1801, under the name of H. aduncum, and there is a 

 similar specimen from Swartz, in the Hookerian Herbarium, so named. Daw- 

 son Turner did not discover the error, and has marked, in his herbarium ,the 

 Hedwigian specimen as "var. /3. Muse. Hih.'\ under the (probable) impres' 

 sion that the Swartzian specimen, was more like the moss figured by Dillenius, 

 (Hist. Muse. t. xxxvii. f. 26. J, which is assumed by Turner and Bridel, to be 

 the original Linnsean species — (found by Dillenius " in ericetis palustribus 

 inter "West Wickham and Addington, prope Croydon, copiosissim.e.^') 



Fortunately there is an authentic specimen from Hedwig himself, in the 

 Turnerian Herharium, which removes all reasonable doubt and which well 

 ■agrees with the figure given in the Stirpes. — It proves to be identical with 

 the moss hitherto called H. pellueidum, Wils. MSS. (H. vernicosum, of 

 Lindberg, and H. aduncum var. tenue of Bryol. Europ. J — It is H. Jlavescens, 

 <of Schleicher, in Herb. Ttirner. 



This moss, with female flowers, was gathered many years ago by Mr. 

 Borrer, in Amberley Wild Brook, Sussex, (called H. aduncum, var. in Herh. 

 Turner.) — The male plant was once plentiful in Wybunberry Bog, Cheshire, 

 but through the recent drainage, is now extinct. It is distinguished readily 

 from all its allies by the very membranous pellucid plicate cauline leaves, 

 inflated or saccate at the base. 



