PLAGIOTHECIUM ELEGANS (Hooker). 



By Jno. Whitehead. 



I HAVE to announce the discovery of that rarely-fruiting moss mostly 

 known as Hypnum elegans (Hooker), with plenty of good capsules, 

 near Barmouth, by myself and Messrs. Ashton and Percival. We 

 first saw the plant with young fruit in Dec, 1876, but we visited the 

 place again the following April, and gathered ripe capsules. My 

 principal object in writing this notice is to question the identity of 

 our British moss with the H. elegans of Hooker, and to claim for it 

 the original name of H. Borrerianum, given to it by Dr. Spruce in 

 1846. Perhaps it may be as well to state that I brought a patch of 

 the young fruit with me in Dec, 1876, and cultivated it, watching its 

 growth daily during three months. A few weeks back I saw a copy 

 of Hooker's " Musci Exotici," and was surprised to find that his 

 figure and description of H. elegans differed in so many important 

 characters from our plant. He describes and figures the fruit as 

 drooping, as in Br yum pendulum, with the leaves scarcely pointed, 

 and the inner peristome pale yellow, outer red — characters entirely at 

 variance with our plant, which has the fruit horizontal and sometimes 

 fiub-erect, with the leaves much acuminated, and the outer and inner 

 |;eristome pale yellow. I have mentioned the subject- to the Rev. J. 

 Fergusson, and he is also surprised to find that the two plants are 

 distinct. I have also sent specimens to Dr. Spruce, who sent me an 

 interesting and valuable letter in reply, from which the following is 

 an extract. 



" The moss identified by Wilson with Hooker's H. elegans I first 

 called H. Borrerianum, Ms., in 1846, and gave it under that name to 

 my friends, but it did not appear in print until 1851, when Karl 

 Miiller published it under my name in his ' Synopsis Muscorum.' In 

 1855 Wilson gave it as H. elegans, Hooker, in his ' Bryologia,' and 

 in 1860 Schimper, in his ' Synopsis of European Mosses,' described 

 the very same plant as H. Millleri, Schimp. I never was quite satis- 

 fied with Wilson's determination, for Hooker's figure in ' Musci 

 Exotici ' shows lanceolate concave leaves without any slender points, 

 and a capsule as pendulous as that of a Bryum. Lindberg, in his 

 Manipulas Muscorum, Secundus, 1874,' says he has compared 

 authentic specimens of the two, and found them quite distinct. The 

 true H, elegans was gathered by Menzies at Nootka Sound, in 1787. 

 The question of its identity with our British (and European) moss can 

 only 'be decided by renewed reference to the Hookerian herbariun^." 



