^210 



The Naturalist. 



lid varying in length ; never, however, I allow, so long as in Greville's 

 figure. In regard to size I have seen German specimens almost twice 

 the size of yours, and with a very indistinct struma. ^ ^ * 

 Most faithfully yours, 



W. J. Hooker " 

 On May 6th, 1835, Mr. Wilson again visited Mere. The water was 

 very high, and there was no access to any of the mosses seen in the 

 previous year. A subsequent visit in the autumn was attended with 

 better success. He gathered PJiascum stenopJiyllum more plentifully 

 than in 1834. PJiyscomitrkim sphoericim was, however, very scarce, 

 and ArcJiidium pJiascoides scarcely visible where in the preceding 

 autumn it had been abundant. The station for these mosses described 

 by Mr. Wilson will, I suppose, be that now so well knpwn. " It is,'* 

 he says, " found by going from the outlet up the west shore until you 

 reach a creek. It is between the last willow bush and this creek, on 

 the steep face of the ground, in yellowish clayey soil." 



There is one British moss — essentially British, for I believe it has not 

 up to the present time been discovered anywhere on the Continent — 

 with which Mr. Wilson's name will ever be associated ; it is, more- 

 over, one of the rarities occurring within the limits of the Manchester 

 flora. I refer to Ortliodontium gracile. It was first observed on the 

 25th of March, 1833, growing on rocks at Helsby. In his journal of 

 that date, Mr. Wilson records having gathered ScMstostega pennata, and 

 " a new moss — Bryum {Pohlia) anminata ?" Next day he examined 

 the moss, and wrote to Sir Wm. Hooker about it, with drawings and 

 specimens. On the 27th he again visited Helsby, and gathered " a 

 large stock " ; and two days later he made a coloured drawing of what 

 he called " the new Pohlia," devoting nearly the whole day to the 

 work. This drawing, it is not improbable, was the one subse- 

 quently published along with Mr. W^ilson's description of the moss 

 (under the name of Bryum gracile) in the Supplement to English 

 Botany. 



In 1831 Mr. Wilson determined the connection between Schistostega 

 pennata and the " shining moss," which, it had previously been main- 

 tained, was an independent growth, and respecting which Mr. J. E. 

 Bowman had written an elaborate memoir in the Magazine of Natural 

 History. The appearance of the young confervoid shoots of Schistos- 

 tega, shining with a metallic green lustre, under favourable conditions 

 as to the light, will not be unfamiliar to those who have seen this 

 beautiful moss in its favourite abodes. I have never seen it so 

 brilliant as it is at Rowter Rocks, in Derbyshire, where it first excited 



