40 



The Naturalist. 



The species was first observed by Dr. James Drummond in this very- 

 place to which Mr. Wilson had received directions, namely Dunscombe's 

 Wood, in the year 1816. The first description of the moss, accompanied 

 by a figure, appeared in Hooker and Taylor's Muscologia Britannica* 

 Writing of it in 1830, Prof. Hooker says : " only one station is known 

 for this moss, namely in the south of Ireland, in a wood in the vicinity 

 of Cork, where it grew near a spring, whose temperature is consider- 

 ably higher than that of the surrounding atmosphere." The figure in 

 English botany was from specimens gathered by Mr, Wilson at the 

 time of which we write, i.e. 1829. Harvey was, however, the first to 

 detect the moss at Killarney — rather, we may imagine, to Wilson's 

 chagrin, for, had he not, but two years before, gone over the very spot 

 where it grew ] 



Harvey, who was a young and enthusiastic botanist, made HooJceria 

 Icete-virens a medium of introduction to Prof. Hooker, as appears by 

 the following letter, which I quote from his memoir. He was a 

 Quaker, and that will account for the quaintness of the phraseology :— 

 " Eespected Friend : Having discovered two new habitats for the 

 beautiful Kooheria late-virens which I am anxious to have inserted in 

 the forthcoming volume of the British Flora, I take the liberty of en- 

 closing specimens, trusting to thy goodness to excuse this want of a 

 personal introduction. As the plant occurs in plenty in one of the 

 situations attached, I think it highly probable it may be found in many 

 other places, and very extraordinary it should be overlooked by J. T. 

 Mackay, as it is found within three or four yards of his habitat for 

 Trichomanes. I have had no opportunity of comparing Cork specimens, 

 but my plants do not appear of a deeper or brighter green than 

 lueens. The fruit, unfortunately, was old, many of the capsules had 

 fallen^ and many of the opercula ; but it appeared from the number of 

 broken foot-stalks to have been in plenty. Should thou think this 

 letter worth replying to, thou wilt address me as under, and permit me 

 (again apologising for taking the liberty to address thee) to subscribe 

 myself very respectfully thine — W. Heney Hauvey, Summerville, 

 Limerick, 7 mo. 13, 1831." 



Thus it is clear Harvey did not himself claim priority in the dis- 

 covery of Hookeria Icete-virens. It is not a little singular that some 

 years later he found the moss growing in the greatest luxuriance in the 

 vicinity of Cape Town, South Africa. It is apparently a sub-tropical 

 species, and Schimper goes so far as to say that it is alien to the 

 European flora. 



On the 28th of July Mr. Wilson prepared for a journey to Killarney. 



