REPORTS OF SOCIETIES. 



3 



is foimd in greater abundance and perfection in this district than in any other 

 place where it has been found. 



The paper was illustrated by numerous beautifully mounted specimens 

 of some of the rarer species of mosses. — The president remarked, with regard 

 to the disappearance of mosses, that the same circumstances had happened to 

 several beautiful Hejjaticm^ and as no effect took place without an adequate 

 cause, it Avould be interesting to ascertain what had caused the disappearance 

 of these beautiful plants — whether it arose from the super-abundance of 

 smoke, superior drainage, or the wanton destruction of the timber trees of 

 this district. A spirited discussion ensued, in which Messrs. No well, J« 

 Haworth, T. Stansfield, Patman, T. Aitkin, W. Sutcliffe, and other 

 members took part. All agreed in condemning in the most unmeasured 

 terms the unwarrantable destruction of the trees of the neighbourhood, and 

 ascribing to this the principal cause of the disappearance of the plants in 

 question. The president stated that at the next intermediate meeting, April 

 23rd, the hon. sec. (Mr. T. Stansfield), would read a paper " on the Ferns of 

 the District." 



Meeting April 2nd. The President in the chair. This was principally 

 a businjess meeting. 



On the table were several interesting specimens both of flowering 

 plants and ferns ; amongst the former — Hellehorus niger, and H. atroruhens, 

 Narcissus minor, Daviesia ulicina, the handsome Imantopliyllum miniatum, 

 Monochmtum ensiferum, Hahrothamnus fascicularis, several species of 

 Kennedy a, Brachycoma, Fidtenia, ^c, S^c. Of ferns, the most interesting 

 were a curiously depauperated form of Pteris aquilina, and several fronds 

 of a well-marked condition of Blechnum spicant, v. heteropliTjllum ; the 

 former of these was a curious example of filical morphology. The pinnae 

 were almost entirely wanting^ the rachides being furnished with numerous 

 short bluntish nodes, and presenting more the appearance of some of the 

 rare and beautiful Gleichenias, than what it really is — a form of one of the 

 very commonest of British Ferns. The Blechnum spicant lieterophyllum^ 

 alluded to was gathered by Messrs. Nowell and Patman in Staups clough, 

 on last Saturday's excursion j this is the second plant of this rare fern col- 

 lected in the neighbourhood of Hebden-bridge. 



