Shurt Notes and Queries. 



121 



work above mentioned. The first case I will take is that of Atrichum cris- 

 pum, as I was never more surprised than to find that Dr. Wood was given 

 as the first detector of the moss in Britain in I860. I first gathered the 

 moss at Stayly Brushes in 1859, and sent it to my lamented old friend, 

 John Nowell, to name for me, when he wrote to inform me that he had 

 known the plant for several years near Todmorden, and was unable to 

 name it, but he had submitted specimens to Mr. Wilson, who said it was 

 a form of A. undulatum. In the autumn of 1860 Dr. Wood and I made 

 arrangements for gathering Climacium dendroides, in fruit in this district, 

 when he told me that Mr. Wilson had sent him a mnioid moss from Oak- 

 mere, Cheshire. He described the moss to me, and then I told him that 

 it was growing in plenty at Stayly Brushes, which we were then passing. 

 He told me that he wanted a lot of it for Dr. Schimper, and sent his son 

 the following week to go with me to gather it. He sent specimens to Dr. 

 Schimper under the name of A. tenellum, and new to England ; but 

 Schimper wrote back to say that it was A . laxifolium, Wils. , and new to 

 Europe. The other cases I beg to mention are Bryum turhinatum and 

 B. calophyllum. I deny altogether, as a wilful misstatement, that I and R. 

 Scholefield detected the moss at the place mentioned, as the locality was 

 pointed out to me by R. Gordon. In concluding this note, I assert, with- 

 out fear of contradiction, that Dr. Schimper has depended mostly on 

 Dr. Wood for his information on British mosses for the Synopsis. — J. 

 Whitehead. 



Thoughts on Ornithology : Suggested by the Exhibition of the 

 Yorkshire Naturalists' Union. By H. C. Hewetson, M.R.C.S." Leeds, 

 Chas. Goodall, Cookridge-street, price 6d. — This is a pleasant little 

 review of the ornithological department of the exhibition, preceded by 

 some remarks on the study of natural history in general, and of ornith- 

 ology in particular. Several pages are occupied with a critique upon 

 the "setting" of preserved birds as generally followed, " mere mummies of 

 a former existence,^' and how, considered from an artistic point of view, 

 this should be done — a lesson required by not a few professed taxider- 

 mists. We understand the proceeds of the sale of this pamphlet will be 

 added to the exhibition fund. 



"Reports of the Botanical Record Club." — First Quinquennial 

 Volume, 1873-77 : Edited by F. A. Lees, F.L.S. London : West, New- 

 man, and Co. — We have just received the above, which includes much 

 very interesting matter, and will be a valuable addition to every botanist's 

 book-shelf. It contains first the report of the Recorder for 1877, and 

 then the new County Records, of which about 83 refer to Yorkshire, a 

 fair proportion of them having been gathered by the various members of 

 the Yorkshire Naturalists' Union during their several excursions ; II. the 

 general Locality List ; III. extinctions and reappearances ; TV. aliens, 

 casuals, and escapes ; and Y. County Catalogues, Basis Lists, &c., a 

 paper on the Distribution of Chara as shown by specimens in his herba- 



