J. CASH : EARLY BOTANICAL WORK OF WM. WILSON. 1 87 



their specific difference. I know, however, that Forster considers them distinct. 

 I named above the singular ' shining moss ' I noticed in the ' Magazine of Natural 

 History,' and which none of my botanical friends knew anything about. It was 

 one principal object of my late journey into Derbyshire (where I usually pay an 

 annual visit to an elderly maiden relative) to make further observations upon it, 

 and I am happy to say I have satisfied myself both as to its true form and the 

 cause of its extraordinary brilliancy, which is very striking. I believe it to belong 

 to the algae (a tribe of which I know nothing), as it consists of innumerable 

 articulations of a perfectly globular form and highly pellucid nature, each of them 

 no larger than the seed of a moss, but each acting as a globular lens to condense 

 the light that falls upon it, just as the glass globes filled w^th coloured fluid in a 

 druggist's window transmit their concentrated light to the eye placed in the 

 angle of incidence tinged with the peculiar colour of the fluid. This proves it to 

 be transmitted through the fluid, not reflected from its surface ; in fact this tiny 

 vegetable owes its splendour to the same law of optics which lights up the emerald 

 or the ruby, and is truly a vegetable emerald. As the former account was drawn 

 up from specimens that had been dried and subsequently moistened, some doubts 

 remained which I thought it well to clear up by a supplementary notice, which I 

 sent the other day, accompanied by a more accurate sketch, and which will 

 probably be inserted in a succeeding number ; but the explanation given in the 

 first account of the cause of the resplendent appearance is quite correct. I have 

 asked Dr. Greville to give it a name. 



It has often struck me on passing through Delamere Forest that it must possess 

 some favourable spots for mosses and bog plants ; but I never had an opportunity 

 of examining it. I should much wish to do so with you any time when you are 

 going there, if you will let me know, and appoint a rendezvous. Indeed, I am so 

 young a student in Cryptogamic Botany that, excepting very near home, I have 

 explored but few places. I have long been attached to phanerogamous plants, 

 though for many seasons, owing to the want of intercourse with kindred minds to 

 stimulate, I have suffered botany to lie in abeyance and pursued other branches of 

 natural science. I have also been long an enthusiastic admirer of the minuter 

 portions of insects and vegetables, as displayed in the microscope, and have a 

 tolerable collection of such objects. The exquisite beauty of many of the mosses 

 and Jungermanniae, of course, had not escaped my notice, and I often took shame 

 to myself not to know them scientifically ; nor was it till the spring of last year 

 that I determined to put my shoulder to the wheel and study them. I had not 

 then twenty good specimens of cryptogamic plants, the ferns excepted, and already 

 my collection may be said to be pretty extensive, and is daily on the increase. 

 The whole of my leisure, which I am thankful is not scanty, is occupied in this 

 truly delightful field, where labour and exertion are unalloyed pleasure, and 

 where at every step there is so much to admire and to contemplate. Nor have 

 I been entirely unsuccessful in the way of discovery during my short career, 

 though I cannot boast, with you, of having added a new phanerogamous plant 

 to our native flora, and, that to the confusion of Welsh botanists, upon our own 

 hills too ! 



I' trust soon to hear when I may have the pleasure of seeing you here to look 

 over my collection, and anticipate much pleasure from future intercourse ; for 

 however much, from early impressions and habits, we may happen to differ on 

 other subjects — for what two minds ever thought alike on many topics ?— still it is 

 certain there is some ground that may be considered as common to both, and that 

 of sufficiently ample space to occupy us both. 



With thanks for your kind letter and offers of assistance, 

 Believe me, my dear Sir, 



Your very sincere friend, 



J. E. Bowman. 



On the 2 1 St June Mr. Wilson again wrote to Mr. Bowman, and 

 sent him specimens of Hyp7iuni crassinervium, and other mosses. 

 He spent a large part of the autumn of 1831 in the principahty, 

 chiefly in Anglesey and the neighbourhood of Bangor. 



June 1887. I ■ . . , , ' 



