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AUSTRALIAN MOSSES. 
Some Locality Pictures. 
Rev. W. Walter Watts. 
The Editor has suggested to me that brief “pen pictures” of Australian 
Moss localities might interest readers of the Bryologist; and with that object 
in view, and with the added purpose of assisting the cause of Australian 
bryology, I shall be glad to send an occasional paper to a publication that 
has interest, not only in America and Europe, but even in these far-off 
Southern lands. « 
I begin with the district in which I am at present located, the district of 
Young, in New South Wales, — not my first, but my latest, bryological love. 
The town of Young lies a few miles northwest of the main Southern line 
from Sydney to Melbourne. “As the crow flies” it is about 150 miles from 
the coast, 200 miles from Sidney, and stands 1400-1500 feet above sea-level. 
It was formerly an important gold field, and the vincinity of old watercourses 
has been honey-combed by the alluvial miner. The district is diversified 
with hill and hollow. Our chief products are wool and wheat, — and rabbits. 
The climate is healthy. Such rains as we get fall mainly in the Winter; the 
Summer is usually hot and dry. The temperature ranges from a few degrees 
>o£ frost in Winter, bringing us very rarely a touch of snow, up to as much as 
1 15-120 degrees in the middle of Summer. Our mosses are mostly denizens 
•of rock and ground, and must be looked for during the Winter and the early 
Spring, say July to October. 
Outcrops of granite occur in all parts of the district. In some directions 
they develop into high rocky hills: humbler outcrops, with the grass growing 
to their base, are a distinguishing feature on every hand. Where the land 
has not been cleared, the characteristic “gum” tree lends picturesqueness to 
the view. 
I propose a visit to one of these granite outcrops, choosing a spot where 
the rocks, worn with the weather of unknown centuries, are flanked by open 
country that stretches down to rich alluvial flats. It is the month of August, 
when the moss-fruits are rapidly hastening to maturity, some of them already 
displaying their open capsules, while others still retain the veil. 
Examining first the rocks themselves, we find that the most obtrusive 
species are Taylor’s Grimmia cygnicollis , and G. leiocarpa. ‘ The* first of 
these, Mitten identified with G. pulvinata, var. obtusa (Brid.), and Brotherus, 
in Bryales, follows him. Wilson regarded G. leiocarpa, Tayl., as a var. of G. 
leucophaea, Grev. Brotherus agrees, but merges G. leucophaeain G. campes- 
tris, Burch. I cannot yet throw off the familiar names. We shall also find, 
perhaps in large quantities, Hedwigia albicans (Web.) Lindb. (H. ciliata, 
Ehrh.). C. Mueller regarded the Australian moss as a new species, H. 
microcyathea, C. M. Hedwigidium imberbe , Sm., is also here, but without 
.any trace of fruit: Pseudoleskea calochlora , C. M.. and Tor tula princeps , 
DeNot. If we follow Brotherus in his conclusions regarding the two Grim- 
mias, we shall be struck with the remarkably northern character of this rock 
