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TflE NATURALIJiT. 



fruit, in four stations previously unknown to him — a fact of whick be 

 apprised Sir Wm. Hooker in a letter dated Apri? 18tli, adding that he 

 had gathered above thirty specimens. In April of the following year, 

 the moss was again found fertile, but not so plentifully except in one 

 station ; and on a visit to Knutsford Moor, Mr. Wilson, strange to say, 

 found it there also — and that, too, on the day of his discovery on the 

 same ground of taluddla squarrosa. 



On March 24th, 1831, Mr. Wilson records the finding of various 

 mosses and Jungermannise at Over : Blazia pusilla, was seen with 

 perfect fruit ; he also gathered J ungermannia ohtusifolia. At New- 

 church Bog he observed CUmacium dendroides with over-ripe capsules. 

 On April 11th, at Pettypool, he gathered Jungerinannia trichomanes, 

 J. connive ns^ and J. polyanthos, in fruit ; he also observed Tetraphis 

 pellucida on a bank on the margin of Newchurch Bog, with fruit ; in 

 the same neighbourhood Fhasam alter nifolmm ; in Paper Mill Wood 

 OrtJiotrichum pulchellum., and near Grange Wood Bypnum polymorphum. 

 Ilypnum ftlicumm was observed at " Wade's Sand-hole," but much too 

 unripe to gather. Another station for fruiting Hypnum pUcinum was 

 found on a subsequent visit, near Hartford Bridge. On the 4th of 

 May Mr. Wilson, who had shortly before made the acquaintance of 

 Mr. J. E. Bowman, went with him to Delamere specially to gather 

 fruiting Mnium affine. The journey was a successful one ; they found 

 in addition to fruiting specimens of that moss, Jungerwannia oUimfoliay 

 in spots "not far from the brook below Dale Ford " ; also /, 

 Jrancuci and /. exsecta by the roadside as you go down to Dale Ford 

 — perhaps fertile." I find memoranda with regard to various other 

 mosses and hepatics. One moss which Mr. Wilson met with puzzled 

 him greatly. He thought it was a species of Bicramm (Dicranella) 

 and a new one. He first observed it on the 24th of March, 1831, 

 " whilst rapidly crossing a field below Mr. Little's garden at Over," 

 and picked up a large tuft. " It may," he wrote, " prove to be a 

 Gymnodoyyium. I compared it with Weissia controversa, and was con- 

 firmed in my opinion of their being quite distinct." The fruit was 

 not quite ripe, and Mr. Wilson confessed that for the time he could 

 make nothing of it. He gathered it on subsequent visits, examined it 

 ^nd rerexamined it, but to no purpose. At length he sent it Sir Wm. 

 Hooker, who replied as follows (April 21st, 1831): — 



""Your supposed Dicranum is the veritable Gymnodotnum m.icrostomnm. 

 Upon this I will stake all my little knowledge of mosses. I almost 

 yecognised it with the naked eye, and I felt quite sure of it with the 

 ^id of a single lens. Would that I had as little difficulty with many 



