©rrgmal %xtukB. 



NOTES ON SOME RARE BRITISH MOSSES. 



[Read before tlie Manchester Cryptogamic Society, May 15th, 1882.] 

 By J. Cash. 



HYPNUM BLANDOVII, 

 The discovery of this moss at Knutsford — its best known and now 

 probably only habitat in this country — was made by the late Mr. Wm^ 

 Wilson on the 17th November, 1831. Mr. Wilson was then unac- 

 quainted with the species, and, under the belief that he had stumbled 

 upon fruiting Hypnum ohietinum^ a moss which is only found barren in 

 Britain, he wrote in his diary, under date Nov. 17th — " Rode to 

 Knutsford Moor. Saw abundance of Rypnmn abietinum, with setje 

 just shooting up." But having shortly afterwards discovered that 

 this was an error, he struck out the specific name, and wrote 

 " laricinuni^ MSS.," supposing it to be a new species. He was not 

 aware that the moss was identical with one previously found barren at 

 Tunbridge by Mr. Joseph Woods, and which was described and 

 figured, though imperfectly, in ^' English Botany," edit, i., as 

 Blandomi. 



At the time of Mr. Wilson's discovery, Smith's " English Flora," 

 vol. ii. (which is also the second vol. of Hooker's British Flora ") 

 was passing through the press, and Mr. Wilson communicated his 

 H. laricinum, MSB., to the author of that work, and a brief descrip- 

 tion is given by Sir William Jackson Hooker, at p. 87. On the 12th 

 December, 1831, as recorded in his diary, Mr. Wilson wrote, and sent 

 specimens of the new moss, to Sir William (then Dr.) Hooker, together 

 with sketches and remarks, as compared with H. abietmum. Two days 

 later, he " examined and sketched more carefully the new Hypnum,'* 

 and on the 17th December he received from Sir Wm. Hooker a letter 

 in answer to his of the 12th. Sir William, in that letter, cites 

 Swartz's characters of //. abietinum, and says : ^' The figure of the 

 leaf of your H larkiniim is very like that of the leaf of Swartz's 

 plant, of which I have a sketch from Mr. Turner's specimens. I think 

 I might safely quote Swartz's abidinum under your II. laricinum^ 



On the 24th December Mr. Wilson again visited Knutsford, in order 

 to note the progress of the fructification of the new moss, when he 

 found it in the very same state as in Novem-ber," and he adds the 

 remark, *' The fruit not to be had before March or April " — a fact of 

 which he apprised Dr. Hooker in a subsequent communication. Under 

 date 15th March, 1832, we find the following note in Mr. Wilson's 

 N. S., Vor.. vn.— July, 1882. 



