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 A HISTORY OF WORCESTERSHIRE The following are the more rare species not included in the pre- ceding notes : — Archidium alternifolium, Schp. Malvern^ Funaria fasciculare, Schp. Malvern, Lees Lees Bryum lacustre, Brid. Harborne Dicranella secunda, Ldb. Malvern, GrifBths Neckera pumila, Hedw. Malvern, Lees Leucobryum glaucum, Schp. Lkkey Hill Brachythecium salebrosum, B. & S. Near Fissidens crassipes, Wils. Near Hahiowen Alfrkk Pottia Starlceana, C. M. 'J Eurhynchium tenellum, Milde. Malvern, Tortula pusilla, Mitt. > Malvern, Lees Lees Weissia crispa, Mitt. J Hypnum vernicosum, Ldb. Wyre Forest Orthotrichum anomalum, var. saxatile, Milde. H. uncinatum, Hedw. Moseley Malvern, Lees Hylocomium brevirostre, B. & S. Malvern, O. cupulatum, HofFm. Newbould-on-Stour Lees Comparing the moss flora of Worcestershire with that of the bordering counties, we find that — Herefordshire has 280 species. But Herefordshire has a larger area, a more humid climate, extensive heathlands, marshes and bogs, and a range of mountains prolific in montane species, and has been more thoroughly examined. Shropshire has 251 species. This county has nearly twice the area, and a very much greater area of waste and woodland. It has not been exhaustively investigated, and will probably be found to have as large a moss flora as Herefordshire. Staffordshire has 273 species. This county, nearly twice the size of Worcestershire, has twice the area of wood and waste land, has extensive moorlands and bogs, and numerous rapid streams abounding in mosses. Warwickshire has 245 species. This county has about the same area as Worcestershire, but has no high hills, is poor in limestone rocks, but its northern woodlands are more boggy, and yield many species not yet observed in Worcestershire. It has been more systematically worked, and is probably more fully recorded. LIVERWORTS {Hepaticce) These plants are closely allied to the mosses, and would be included with them by unbotanical observers. But they differ in having cap- sules opening by valves, and with the exception of Riccia, in the presence of spiral bodies (elaters) among their spores. Although found in every sort of habitat, they are on the whole more dependent on the presence of moisture than the mosses, and on the softer soils they are crowded out by the more vigorous growth of the flowering plants ; hence in a highly-cultivated district like Worcestershire, where bogs, marshes and waste heath-lands are few and far between, the hepatic flora is a very meagre one, only forty species being recorded for the county. The richest localities are the marshy banks of streams like Dowles Brook in Bewdley Forest. Here is found the singular but beautiful T'richocolea tomentella and Cephalozia bicuspidata, C. multijiora, Pellia epiphylla and Aneura sinuata. On the water-splashed rocks of some of the streams near 66