P R E F A C E .
T h e great want o f a guide to our recently much-extended Moss-
Flora, and the solicitation of numerous friends, have induced the Author
to commence a work which he trusts will meet the requirements o f all
who study these interesting plants.
The cell structure of the leaves, so important in the distinction of
genera and species, will receive due attention both in the figures and
descriptions, and the bibliography, while not attempting to be exhaustive,
will be ampler than has hitherto appeared in any British work; the
records of localities for all but common species will also be numerous,
the mark ! after any of these indicates that the specimen has been
examined, and ! ! that it is also in the Author’s herbarium.
In the nomenclature, the oldest published name has been adopted
when there were no sound reasons to the contrary, and it is greatly to
be deplored that so little attention has been paid to the laws drawn up
for our guidance, for an author is not at liberty to change a specific name
on transferring it to a new genus, nor to supersede by a new name, one
previously published, even by himself.
Th e term peristome is restricted to the outer or parietal series of
appendages, when this organ is double, the inner, proceeding from the
spore-sac, being distinguished as the endostome, and the adjective termination
to specific names in honour of individuals is also altered to the genitive
of the noun, as Brownii for Brozimiamm (see Lindley s Introduction to
Botany, 2 ed. p. 458).
The arrangement of the families and genera is principally in accordance
with Professor Lindberg’s admirable program, “ Uthast till m natnrlig
gruppering a f Europas Uadmossor med toppsittande f r u i t (1878), the most
natural which has yet appeared; in this the cleistocarpous mosses— as
in Mr. Mitten’s system— are regarded as imperfectly developed forms of
variou s. stegocarpous families, with which they agree in everything but
a separable operculum, and the genera are framed on a broader and more
rational basis, just as our best botanists now deal with phsenogamous
plants.