The Naturalist. 



writing : — Again attempted to gather IT. laricimmi. My brother 

 accompanied me to Knutsford, and we saw it in statu quo " ; and he 

 observes, in a footnote : " The latter end of April is, in fact, the 

 proper season for gathering it/' On the occasion of this visit to 

 Knutsf ord, Mr. Wilson removed some of the moss " to be ripened in 

 cultivation," and from that time he watched the development of the- 

 fruit with great attention. On the 16th of April he again visited 

 Knutsford, when he made a further notable discovery (to be referred to 

 hereafter) ; but as to H. laricinum, it was in its natural habitat — " still: 

 for the most patt unswelled." This remark, of course, referred to the 

 capsule, " It is later than H. euspidattm,'^ he observes, " and less 

 advanced than H. stellatum but neither will be fit to gather till 

 towards the end of this month " (i.e. April). 



The new Hypnum continued to occupy much of Mr. Wilson's 

 attention, and was the subject of correspondence with different 

 botanists at the time. On the 19th April he sent other drawings to 

 Dr. Hooker, and asked his opinion of the H. ahietinnm in the Linnsean 

 herbarium, " which," he says, " I believe to be H. laricinum " ; and he- 

 eonsiders a comparison with Drummond's American fertile H. ahieii- 

 nmn very desirable, expressing, at the same time, a doubt if the true- 

 plant (abietimmi) is ever found fertile in Europe. 



On visiting Enutsford on the 27th April, Mr. Wilson found the 

 capsules of H. laricinum very generally swelled to their full size, and 

 in some few cases nearly ripe. The finest was " near the Aspidium 

 Thelypteris^' where, as we all know, it is still, unless destroyed by the 

 drainage now going on. 



But Mr. Wilson was destined to receive some unexpected light upon 

 the subject of his discovery, and it came to him from Sir Wm. Jackson 

 Hooker. Writing on the 2nd of May, 1832, Sir William congratulate^^ 

 Mr. Wilson on the discovery of Paludella sqtiarrosa, and he says : — 

 " But if this charming plant is to be added to our muscological cata- 

 logue, I fear another vdll have to be erased, for which you may blame 

 me as much as you please. I find that H. Blandovii has a deep carina 

 in the leaf, exactly as in H. laricinum, which I had before entirely 

 overlooked ; and I am now unable to perceive any distinguishing 

 ©haracter. If you come to the same opinion, you must still quote* 

 H. laricinum as being given in " British Flora," vol. ii.pt. 1, p. 87y 

 and add, not of Hooker,. Mus. Exot. t. 85." Sir William had, long 

 before its application to the Knutsford plant, appropriated this specific 

 name for an Australasian moss. He goes on to say, in the letter from 

 which we quote, " It is certain that those who have described 



