Cash : Paludella SQUAtiROsAi 



3 



Mr. Wilson examined the new moss, wliicli he believed to be Bfyum 

 squarrosum^ Hedw. {Hypium 'paludella, Web. and Mohr, 274) : he 

 " found it to possess terminal perichetia, with abortive pistilla." He 

 ■Was correct as to the species. 



On the 19th of April Mr. Wilson wrote to Dr. Hooker, announcing 

 the discovery of Brymn hquarrosmn, and enclosing specimens and 

 drawings. Letters conveying the same information were written to 

 other botanists, among the rest to J. De Sowerby, Mr. W. H. Harvey 

 — then a young and enthusiastic botanist fast rising into note — and to 

 Professor Henslow, of Cambridge University, not forgetting, either, 

 one of the Lancashire artisan botanists, with whom he had frequent 

 correspondence — John Martin, of Tyldesley. The moss, with others^ 

 was figured by Mr. Wilson for the second edition of English Botany. 

 There is no doubt that the original station for Paludella squarrosa at 

 Knutsford has been destroyed by drainage. 



It may be interesting to note that Hypnum nitens and Mnium affine^ 

 both fertile, were found at the same time and in the same locality. 

 The fertile H. nitem grew " not far from B. squarrosum, nearer the 

 brook, on the other side of the path," and there was another station 

 for it " near the fertile H. stellatum^ more towards the mere, and rather 

 nearer the brook." These words are quoted from Mr. Wilson's diary. 

 They are too obscure to be of practical use now. Mr. Wilson appears 

 to have searched the bog carefully for B. squarrosum, for he records, on 

 the 10th May, 1832, that he was " unable to find any second station 

 for it." 



This, as far as is known, is all the information to be had about the 

 occurrence of Paludella squarrosa at Knutsford. But ten years later, 

 certain muscologists in Yorkshire made diligent and successful search 

 both for this moss and for H. BlandoviL An interesting letter from 

 Mr. Henry Ibbotson to Mr. Wilson, dated Gabthorpe, near Whitwell, 

 Mar. 1st, 1842, has been preserved, in which the writer says : " You 

 have, I presume, received specimens of ff. nitens and H. Blandovii, all 

 the productions of a bog in this neighbourhood, from our respected 

 friend Mr. Spruce, who informs me, upon your authority, that the same 

 plants, together with B. squarrosum, grow in a bog in Cheshire, and 

 that you suggested that our locality for the two former plants might 

 also be likely to produce the latter. I have, therefore, been induced 

 to examine the place very carefully, and am pretty well convinced that 

 the plant is not there to be met with. A short distance, however, 

 from this bog there is another which I never visited previous to 

 Thursday last, when I found it to produce the same plants as the firsi 



