ON CINCLIBIUM STYGIUM, Swaktz. 



By Jas. Cash. 



This moss, which is of arctic or sub-arctic type, occurs in this country 

 only in three recor led localities, namely — at Malham, in the West- 

 Eiding of Yorkshire ; in the Breadalbane district of Perthshire — on 

 Ben Lawers ; and (according to Schimper's Synopsis) at a place called 

 Tuddenham Bog, in Suffolk.* Its natural home is Northern Europe, 

 where, particularly in Sweden and Norway, it is said to be abundant. 

 It is also found in the Arctic regions, being included, with many other 

 British species, in the list of mosses collected by Dr. Lyall during one 

 of the expeditions sent out to search for Sir John Franklin. Its 

 association with such mosses as Splachnum Wormskiotdii and Mnimn 

 k^menophylloides leads us to hope that these and kindred species, as 

 yet unknown to us, may also some day be found in Britain. 



Moreover, when we find, in a list of forty-eight arctic mosses, no 

 fewer than forty-two which have been recorded as British, the fact 

 seems to indicate a very close correspondence between our own moss 

 flora and that of regions much further north. 



The history of Cinolidium stygium as a British moss is not a little 

 interesting to Lancashire muscologists, especially those who are old 

 enough to remember its fortunate discoverer, John Nowell. In 

 speaking of Nowell as its discoverer, I merely give utterance to the 

 current belief, though, as we shall presently see, Nowell did not, at 

 the time of the discovery, do more than share the credit with certain 

 muscological acquaintances, namely — John Hanworth of Lobb Mill, 

 and William Greenwood of Lumb Butts. The discovery was made 

 in the summer of 1836. When the moss was picked up on the bog 

 near Malham Tarn, none of the three could identify it. They were, 

 however, acute enough to see that it was a rare thing, and convinced 

 themselves by subsequent investigation — apparently before communi- 

 cating the moss to any of the experts then living — that it was new to 

 the British flora. I cannot say whether they sent specimens for 

 identification to anyone besides Mr. Wm. Wilson, who at that time 

 (seventeen years before the publication of his " Bryologia Britannica") 

 was known throughout England as the best authority on British 

 mosses j but the presumption is that they did not, if we are to judge « 



* Since this was written I have ascertained that the moss was found on Ben 

 Ledi, in 1864, by the late Mr. McKinlay (this being the first Scottish locality), 

 and that a year or two later it was discovered near Balquhidder, hy Mr. 

 John Shaw. 



