INTHODL'CTION. 425 
study has been a source of g^reat pleasure to me through 
life, as well as giving^ me a great relief at times from the 
laborious work of a business life. 
Spruce commenced studying the mosses about 1841, and his 
early work was investigating the Castle Howard district, also 
the neighbourhood of York, examining the banks of the Ouse 
and Foss, up Wharfdale to the Strid and Bolton Woods, as 
well as visiting Stockton Forest, Strensall Common, and 
other uncultivated heathery ground, in which district he 
made many interesting discoveries, both of Mosses and 
Hepatics, most of which are recorded in the first edition of 
"North Yorkshire." {See Phytologist^ Vol. i. pp. Joi-i8g 
and igS). 
Dec. 1842, Spruce made an excursion to Eskdale, and 
investigated Goathland, by the Beck, the neighbourhood of 
Egton and Newtondale, and discovered the rare Hepatic 
Liochlaena laiiceolafa^' its first discovery in the British 
Isles. {See Phyfologist^ Vol. pp. 540 to 544). 
In 1843 Spruce visited Teesdale, located himself at the 
High Force Inn for some three weeks, and was the first 
Bryologist to investigate the fine district of Upper Teesdale. 
The result of this excursion was a paper written b}' him — 
^' The Musci and He pat lose of Teesdale," by Richard 
Spruce, read Jan. 11, 1844, at the meeting of the Botanical 
Society of Edinburgh, of which Spruce was a fellow. This 
paper contains a list of 167 Mosses and 41 Hepaticae, with 
excellent descriptions of many for the first time discovered in 
Yorkshire. His critical descriptions of the novelties are very 
good, and the paper was a great addition to the Bryology of 
Yorksire, and is still often referred to for its excellent 
•descriptions. 
In 1845 appeared a paper on " Several Mosses New to 
the British Flora," by Richard Spruce. This was 
published in Sir W. J. Hooker's " London Journal of Botany." 
In this, 23 mosses are named and most carefully described, 
June, 1905. 
