Holmes : Note on Aulacomnion tulgidum. 



133 



the Sunday afternoon, to ask Mr. Daltry to take the evening service ; 

 however, as we had previously arranged to go to Soham Church, at 

 the market town two miles away, he was unable to do so. 



We left Wicken on Saturday morning, August 3rd, and had a 

 pleasant drive to Ely, where in a corner at the railway station I 

 boxed our last moth — a nice specimen of Aglossa ciiprealis 1 We had 

 a nice run to Peterborough, where, having some time to wait, we 

 examined the old Cathedral, the grand ancient Norman arches of 

 which are something to be remembered. And thus ended our 

 excursion. 



Highroyd House, Huddersfield, 

 October 11th, 1878. 



NOTE ON THE NEW BKITISH MOSS AULACOMNION 

 TURGIDUM, 



By E. M. Holmes, F.L.S. 



The history of the discoTery of this moss is as follows : — Mr. West, 

 a Bradford botanist, during a botanical excursion with Mr. F. Arnold 

 Lees in the North Riding of Yorkshire, gathered some moss which 

 was supposed at the time to be Aulacomnion palustre^ a species which is 

 of common occurrence in Britain. On returning home, however, and 

 re-examining it, Mr. Lees thought that it seemed to differ from that 

 plant, and forwarded specimens to Mr. Boswell of Oxford, and the 

 Rev. J. Fergusson of Brechin. By the latter gentleman it was 

 identified as Aulacomnion turgidum — a verdict in which Mr. Boswell 

 ultimately agreed. Mr. Fergusson's attention being thus called to 

 the plant, he found among some mosses collected by Prof. Barker in 

 1871, some specimens of the same plant gathered on the Breadalbane 

 mountains. 



Aulacomnion palustre being a very variable plant — in the south of 

 Europe sometimes attaining a length of a foot or more, while in 

 Greenland and Labrador it becomes less than one inch, in fact as 

 small as A. androgyrtum^ and sometimes assuming the habit of A. 

 turgidum — I may perhaps be pardoned for pointing out what seem to 

 me to be the differences between the two species. A. turgidum has 

 leaves which are imbricated and erect, both in the wet and dry state ; 

 they are obtuse and concave, only about half the length of those of 

 A, palustre^ and their broadest diameter is usually above the middle 

 of the leaf. The cells of the leaf are also more sharply and regularly 



