A HISTORY OF NORTHAMPTONSHIRE ARBOREAL MOSSES Tetraphis pcllucida, Hedw. Orthotrichum Schimperi, Hamm. Cinclidotus Brebissoni, Husn. — obtusifolium, Schrad. Ulota phyllantha, Brid. Neckera pumila, Hedw. Orthotrichum Sprucei, Mont. AQUATIC MOSSES Fissidens crassipes, Wils, Cinclidotus fontinaloides, P. Beauv. LIVERWORTS {Hepatica) AND LICHENS The first-named group of plants is at present almost untouched in Northamptonshire, and little of interest can be said about them, for though the late Mr. Robert Rogers paid some attention to the subject, the list he drew up, chiefly from the neighbourhood of Yardley Chase, contains only the common and widely distributed species. The lichens have received as little attention as the hepatics. No resident botanist has studied them, and the only records of any kind, with the exception of one or two in Morton's History, are based on a small collection made by Mr. W. H. Wilkinson of Birmingham, in the neighbourhood of Fawsley, upon the occasion of the visit to North- ampton of the Midland Union of Natural History Societies in 1888 ; a list of these appears in the Journal of the Northamptonshire Natural History Society, vol. v. p. 149, where special reference is made to a rare form, viz. the var. rubiginea of JJsnea barbata. FUNGI The long residence in Northamptonshire of the late Rev. M. J. Berkeley, one of the greatest of British mycologists, would lead us to expect the fungi of the county to have been extensively studied, and this is undoubtedly the case. Owing however probably to the pressure of more important work, he never drew up a list of local forms ; and strangely enough, enthusiastic botanist as he was, he does not appear to have succeeded in enlisting any other workers in this district in that branch of botany in which he was a recognized authority. Such a list might be drawn up — not without considerable labour — by collating the numerous Northamptonshire records scattered throughout his collections and writings. A few incidental references in the course of presidential and other addresses are all that appear in the records of the County Natural History Society. These references however, scanty as they are, indicate the arduous work carried out by the writer, and prove that the woods of Northamptonshire may be made to afford a rich field to the trained eye of the student of fungi. From these references one or two citations of considerable intrinsic interest may be made. ' If variety of soil affords us an unusually abundant flora, the large 84
