48 



The Na.turali8T. 



August 8th was wholly occupied by Mr. Wilson with drying and 

 examining the plants he had gathered. A few days later he gathered 

 more of the rare Pinguicula, and he also records the finding of speci- 

 mens with fruit of Tortula tortima. One or two quaint entries which 

 appear in his journal about this time are amusing. For instance, 

 under date of Sept. 6th, he wrote : "Up late, feverish. Very fine, 

 sunny day. Caught and executed a few fleas." 



The first mention I find of Daltonia splacJmoides is on the 9th of 

 September, Mr. Wilson having come upon that rare moss during a visit 

 to Cromagloun. On the 10th, he writes : " Walked to Turk mountain 

 and ascended a woody glen. Found Daltonia splacJmoides with ripe 

 capsules." He climbed that day to the summit of Turk, and returned 

 to his lodgings at night much fatigued. Amongst his gatherings 

 during the journey was Pimpinella magna^ which was found growing in 

 Muckross woods. 



Another visit was made to those woods on the 12th of September. 

 Mr. Wilson then found Jungermannia Mackayii in fruit, Zygodon 

 conoideus, Z. vi?'idissimus, Hypnum tenellum^ &c. Four days later he 

 gathered more of Daltonia splacJmoides, and found Jungermannia calyp- 

 trifolia. At Cromagloun, on the 19th, he came upon a large patch of 

 Daltonia — most of it ripe ; also a " large quantity " of TricJiomanes 

 radicans. 



Mr. Wilson seems to have lost no time in communicating to Prof. 

 Hooker his finding of Daltonia splacJmoides and other good things. 

 He received a letter from the Professor, dated October 18th, 1829, in 

 which the writer said : "I had great pleasure in receiving your letter 

 yesterday, and I can no longer delay replying to it and congratulating 

 you, as I do most cordially, on your success in discovering a new and 

 so good a habitat for Daltonia splacJmoides. If there was one moss 

 more than any other that I wished should be found by you it was this 

 very moss, for I think I may call it inter muscos rarissimus. I wrote 

 directly to inform Arnott of it, for, long as he has studied mosses, he 

 has never been able to obtain the smallest morsel of this, and actually 

 off'ered to an Edinburgh botanical student, who possessed a little 

 specimen given him by Dr. Taylor, a guinea for it. The young man, 

 though really no botanist, would not part with it. I told Mackay in 

 my letter to him that if anyone could rediscover Daltonia splacJmoides 

 in Ireland it would be you. * * * You are assuredly adopting 

 the only plan for becoming well acquainted with the cryptogamic plants 

 of any particular district ; and I wish the same were more practised 

 by those who seek phsenogamous plants — they examine countries too 

 hastily." 



