CRYPTOGAMIC NOTES. 



J 5 



finest barley is grown and the largest sheep are reared. In the fore- 

 ground Dunstan Pillar, a lighthouse on land, built in 1 7 5 1 , to guide 

 travellers over the heath. Beyond the woods of Blankney rises at 

 the edge of the fen, the massive square of Tattershall Castle, built 

 by Lord Cromwell, Treasurer to Henry VIII; and still following the 

 same direction, that slight-looking column on the skyline is Boston 

 ' stump,' overlooking the never-ending fen. 



Again, drive from Spalding to Boston in the latter part of August, 

 along one of those long, straight fen roads, bordered with pollard 

 willow and flanked by wide drains ; from each reed-bed comes the 

 rattling song of the sedge warbler, and here the reed-wren suspends 

 her nest ; the white or yellow cups of water lilies float on the peat- 

 stained dike, and beneath the shadow of their rounded leaves we 

 detect close-packed shoals of roach. On each side ripening sheets of 

 corn extend to the horizon, or long rows of closely-placed ' stooks ' 

 stand in serried ranks like the encampment of an army — nowhere 

 else in England can we see oats and wheat with such length of straw 

 and size of head; then there are beanflelds where each stalk is 

 suggestive of that climbed by Jack in his search for the Giant's home; 

 stretches of golden mustard, now in full flower ; fields of dark-green 

 swedes or light-green mangolds, of which each root would not disgrace 

 the stall of the seedsman in the Agricultural Hall. Mighty oxen 

 browse lazily the rich pastures, dotted too with big Lincoln wethers, 

 whose recently shorn fleeces weigh from ten to even twenty pounds. 

 From every side comes the sound of busy labour — the noisy rattle of 

 the reaping machines, creaking of the laden wains, and the rustle of 

 sheaves as they are pitched on the load ; and all this under a sky 

 which for intensity of blue and freedom from coal smoke, might 

 compare with that of Southern Europe. Seeing all this, we may well 

 exclaim with Cobbett that ' everything taken together, here in Lincoln- 

 shire are more good things than man could have had the conscience 

 to ask of God.' 



CRYPTOGAMIC NOTES. 

 Hedwigidium imtoerbe and Grimmia hartmanni found in 



England. — In looking over some of my old gatherings of mosses I recently 

 found among them Hedwigidium imberbe Sm., collected in the Kentmere Valley, 

 in the English Lake District. The only other British habitats, so far as I am aware, 

 hitherto known for this plant, are in the South of Ireland and North Wales. 



I may also add that I have gathered Grimmia hartmanni Schpr. in the same 

 valley. This has previously been reported from some part of the same province, 

 from the East and West Highlands of Scotland, and from North Wales. It was 

 discovered in Britain first by Dr. Schimper, Dr. Wood and party, when in Scotland 

 in the year 1865. — G. Stabler, Levens, Milnthorpe, Westmoreland, November 

 12th, 1885. 



Jan. 1886. 



