379 
BRYOLOGICAL NOTES ON COVERDALE AND 
BISHOPDALE. 
CHRIS. A. CHEETHAM AND W. H. BURRELL 
Two recent visits to Coverdale and Bishopdale (June and 
August) have left the general impression that the latter has 
the richer moss flora. Allowance must be made for the fact 
that in Coverdale the time was spent in the lower, more open 
part of the dale, but even in so promising a place as Scrafton 
Gill the flora was disappointingly poor. Bishopdale, on the 
contrary, left a sensation of prodigality ; its steep slopes and 
deeply cut gills, well planted with timber, provide the spray- 
washed rock and humid atmosphere favourable for mosses 
and liverworts ; the stream in Back Gill falls eight hundred 
and fifty feet in less than a mile, and in Foss Gill six hundred 
and fifty feet in half a mile. A comparison of sections of the 
two dales, where the seven hundred feet contour-lines cut 
the streams, shows how much steeper are the slopes in Bishop- 
dale, which is also more steeply cut at its upper end. This 
difference in shape, and the exposure of Mountain Limestone 
in the stream bed, probably influence the vegetation; not 
only was the rock flora more abundant and varied, but arboreal 
species were conspicuous ; Orthotrichum Lyellii and 0 . tenellum 
Were seen repeatedly. Dale Head Scar at 1,500 ft., and the 
series of wet limestones and shales exposed in the stream 
beds in the gills on both sides, had many interesting plants, 
and the rock strewn, timbered slopes of Back Gill and Foss 
Gill were to the Bryologist a paradise, that could not be 
seriously dealt with in so short a time. No attempt was made 
to form a complete list, but one hundred and fifty species 
were noted, from which the following were selected for the 
sake of extending their recorded distribution : — 
Andrecea petrophila, grit rocks, 
1,650 ft., Wasset Fell. 
Seligeria pusilla, Foss Gill and 
Scrafton Gill. 
S. recurvata,' on gritstone, Walden- 
dale . 
S. tristicha, Foss Gill, 1,000 ft. 
Rhacomitrium canescens, Wasset 
Fell, and frequent on grassy 
fell roads in the district. 
Weisia cyispa, riverside path, 
Waldendale . 
Trichostomum tortuosum var. 
fragili folium, Bishopdale. 
Encalypta ciliata, Dale Head Scar. 
Zygodon Mougeotii, Dale Head Scar 
Amblyodon dealbatus, Foss Gill, 
1,000 ft. 
Bartramia (Ederi, Dale Head 
Scar. 
Philonotis calcarea, $ inf., Back 
Gill, Bishopdale. 
Breutelia arcuata, Back Gill, 
Bishopdale. 
Weber a cruda, Dale Head Scar. 
Plagiobryum Zierii, Dale Head 
Scar. 
Mnium affine var. elatum, Bishop- 
dale and Coverdale. 
M . serratum, Scrafton Gill and 
Back Gill. 
M . orthorrhynchum , Scrafton Gill 
and Back Gill. 
M . stellare, rocks by Kidstones 
Beck, Bishopdale. 
Neckera pumila, Foss Gill. 
1922 Dec. 1 
