EXPLANATIONS OK THE CATALOGUE. 
exhaustive and trustworthy that work, as a whole unsurpassed to this day, may be. A 
hope was at one time held out to the compiler of the pre.sent list that a new arrange- 
ment, which would have been the outcome of a deep and wide experience of exotic as 
well as of European forms, and reflective and expressive of views matured by an 
unrivalled knowledge of the works of others as well, might be furnished to the Record 
Club, for the benefit alike of its members and of science ; but advancing age, ill 
health, and other work with paramount claims calling for completion, has stood in 
the way. The framing of an arrangement both as natural and as little antiquated as 
possible was no easy task, since no model could be servilely followed. Dr. Spruce 
(without subscribing to the principles involved in any particular one) had expressed 
the opinion that several good classifications of genera and species exist : that of 
Synopsis Hcpaticarnm, that of Dumortiei in his Hcpaticce Europa:, that of Mitten at 
the end of Hooker’s Handbook of the Nciv Zealand P'lora, and that of Lindberg, first 
outlined in 1874 in Hepaticie in Hibernia Iccttc, and perfected in Miisci Scandinavici 
in 1879. This latest elaboration has in this catalogue been in the main followed, 
although in one or two instances generic names having indisputable priority in age 
have been replaced by others less ancient, but more happily descriptive or familiar to 
British Hepaticologists — e.g., Scapania has been retained in preference to Martincllia, 
Gymnomitrium instead of Cesia, etc. Two groups included in other genera by 
Dr. Lindberg have been here accorded generic rank — Adclanthus, for example ; and 
Metzgeria^iXiA Aneia a have been removed from the Anomogamous and Opisthogamous 
Lindbergian sections, in which in many respects they seemed out of place, and put 
next the Fossombronieie, after Pellia, more in accordance with their natural 
affinities, as well as with older systems of grouping. Moreover, they ill-agreed with 
the somewhat unweildy characters of the sections in which Dr. Lindberg included 
them. Sub-generic partitioning has been carried out as far as possible amongst the 
large residuum of forms still left under Jungermannia, with the view of suggesting to 
the student intra-generic alliances which in a catalogue it is impossible to define. As 
many Neesian synonyms, for both genera and species, have been inserted as the 
allotted line allowed ; and the dates of publication of each generic name have also 
been given, so that those who work by Synopsis Hepaticarum, or have access to 
Hooker’s rare British Jnngerniannitc, will have little difficulty in correlating them 
with this catalogue. 
The Census of Distribution. — The idea of tracing each species through the 
counties, or giving the mere aggregate number of known comital-occurrences, as does 
the London Catalogue of Plants, has been abandoned until the Record Club Reports 
have furnished a basis list of the species of at least 70 out of the 1 12 counties and vice- 
counties into which H. C. Watson has divided Britain ; but the timely co-operation 
of some of the leading students of the Bryophyta has, nevertheless, enabled a geogra- 
phical census, albeit a somewhat less detailed one, to be taken. The result is the 
provincial outline of distribution furnished in the series of numerals, and the italic 
letters 7 . and C. (for Ireland and the Channel Islands Province respectively) which 
are seen to follow the italicised pater of each specific name. The sixteen numbers, 
I to 16, and the lettered numerals 17A, 1711, i8a, i8b, and i8c, stand for the twenty-one 
Watsonian Provinces, and shew in which of those provinces each species is known to 
grow. Where the occurrence of a species in any particular county is in any way 
doubtful, or is reported extinct, the number of such province is placed within the 
parenthesis bracket. The names of these provinces, with the numbers standing for 
them in the catalogue, and the counties included in each province, are as follows ; — 
I. Pcninsttlar (Cornwall, Devon, Somerset) ; 2. Channel (Wilts, Dorset, Wight, 
Hants, Sussex); 3. Thames {Oy^osx, Bucks, Berks, Surrey, Middlesex, Herts, Essex, 
Kent) ; 4. Ouse (Northton, Beds, Hunts, Cambridge, Norfolk, Suffolk) ; 5. Severn 
(Monmouth, Gloster, Hereford, Worcester, Warwick, Salop, and Stafford) ; 6. South 
Welsh (Glamorgan, Carmarthen, Brecon, Radnor, Cardigan, and Pembroke) ; 7. 
North Welsh (Montgom., Merioneth, Anglesea, Carnarvon, Denbigh, Flint); 8. 
Trent (Lincoln, Leicester, Notts, Derby) ; 9. Mersey (Cheshire, Lancashire, sine 
Lake Lane.); lo. (Yorkshire solus) ; ii. 7 >«c (Durham, Northumberland); 
12. Lake (Lake Lane., Isle of Man, Westmorland, Cumberland) ; 13. West Lowland 
