THE GE In Eli A OF MOSSES. 47^ 
Hist. Under this head we have Uttle to say, there be- 
ing only one species in the genus, and that one recently 
introduced to the notice of muscologists. We believe it to 
have been discovered by the lamented Professor Schmidt 
of Christiana, the same who accompanied Captain Tuckey 
in his expedition to the Congo river. We know not if he 
bestowed on it a name. In 1814, Dr Hooker found it on 
the Gi'imsel, close to the Glacier du Rhone, at an altitude 
of about 5000 feet ; and he soon after constituted the pre- 
sent genus, in order to receive it, in Bkande's Journal of 
Science and the Arts *. In the mean time, Schleicher 
and Seringe also gathered it in Switzerland, and transmit- 
ted specimens to Schw^grichen, under the manuscript 
name of Hookeria, Thus while Hooker dedicated it to 
his friend, and future coadjutor in the Muscologia Britan- 
nica, it was named on the Continent after himself; — a sin- 
gular and interesting coincidence. It so happened that 
both names were made public in the same year (1816). 
Tayloria, however, had the precedence of some months ; 
yet it is a strange circumstance that, till recently, it has 
been discarded by every continental botanist, and Hookeria 
substituted in its place, although that name was preoccu- 
pied by Sir J. E. Smith, in favour of another genus, also 
of mosses. We rejoice to find at length the justice of the 
claim of Tayloria acknowledged. Our friends Nees von 
Esekbeck and Hornschuch have taken up both it and 
Hookeria of Smith in their excellent " Bryologia Germa- 
nica;""* and w^e are acquainted with no muscologists pos- 
sessed of more liberal feelings, or who are so well able to 
establish both genera as firmly on the Continent, as they 
have long been in this country. Sprengel has also adopted 
« No. 3. p. 146. 
