WCP2167

[1]

Hurstpierpoint

8^th. Dec^r 1879

Dear Alfred,

I have looked over Schimper's¹ Synopsis of European Mosses² the best work on the subject and I find in 2^nd Ed^n. 1876 there are enumerated about 880-890 accepted species[.] I do not fix on an exact number for some species are disputed or denied and others are accepted by the author as usually happens in books of this kind — of the above 586 are enumerated in the Catalogue compiled by Hobkirk³ and Boswell⁴ for the Botanical locality club and called the London Catalogue⁵[.] [T]his was published in 1878. as there are a few more not included in this it may be said that we have 570 species in the British islands of this number 18 only are confined [2] to England Scotland and Ireland of this 18, nine are confined to Britain i.e. England and Scotland, the others are Irish which are quite or almost quite confined to that island. The British species are merely species of genera widely spread in England, with one exception, and they offer nothing remarkable being nearly allied to other wide spread species, on the other hand the Irish are very remarkable. Hookeria laetevirens, Daltonia splachnoides. Tortula Hibernica and the two last formed only these, the Hookeria exists in a maritime [illeg.] in Cornwall[.] These two — the Hookeria the Daltonia and the one English species excepted above (Streptopagens gemmascens) are all three species of genera whose centres of greatest development is in the Equatorial Andes, they are [3] not represented elsewhere in Europe N. America nor any part of the N. Hemisphere; India and the Malay Archip^o. and Pacific. Is are almost destitute of species, not more than one species is known from Africa. In making comparison of British species with European, it must not be left out of consideration, the many promising quite unexplored regions — Spain, Italy, Sicily, Turkey, Greece, and much of Eastern Europe; The best explored are in the following order Gt. Britain, Scandinavia, Germany, Belgium, France.

About 143-150 Hepaticae are found in Gt Britain of these two are confined to Scotland and about 3 are exclusively Irish and 7 others not found elsewhere in Europe, one of these is however found in the Himalaya[.] I am not however able to get at the exact number of European species from having no Synopsis as in the case of the mosses.

Let me know what further you want in this matter and I will hunt it up.

We are all pretty well, have had much snow, all covered now, frost severe. Could hardly keep it out of my greenhouse. Ma⁶ has been well so far. I hope you have shaken off your cold.

With love to Annie⁷ Violet⁸ and Willie.⁹

I am | Ever Yours | William Mitten¹⁰ [signature]

Peculiar British Flowering Plants¹¹

Helianthemum Breweri — Anglesea, Ireland.

a sub-species of H.guttatum

Oenanthe fluviatilis —S. of England, and Ireland.

a sub-sp[ecies]. of Oe. phellandrium:

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Spiranthes Romanzoffiana —. Ireland — & North America!

Eriocaulon septaugulare —W. of Ireland & Hebrides, N. America!

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Tricomanes rudicans — Ireland, Wales — and elsewhere in Europe?