Meeting report

(Extracted from The Journal of Botany, January, 1932.)

This Society held its Annual Meeting and Excursion at Harlech, Merionethshire, from August 15th to 22nd, 1931. The Meeting was attended by about forty-nine members and friends, and the excursions were carried out without serious weather interruption. Nearly half the members went on to Llanberis for a further, week and explored Snowdonia in fine weather.

For the first excursion cars took the members to the entrance of Cwm Bychan, whence a walk led past Llyn Cym Bychan and up through the rocky wood, then through the pass, Bwlch Tyddiad, by the famous Roman Steps towards Rhinog Fawr, a few reaching the mountain top. This district is very rich in bryophytes. Next day a drive through Barmouth led to the classical ground of Tyn-y-Groes, where many good plants were found in the wooded glen. Another drive was to Ceunant Llenyrch, whence the path to the Falls was a struggle through six feet high bracken. Later on in the day Hir Ynys was visited, the “Long Island” being a great mass of greenstone rising out of a flat marsh, where interesting mosses grow. Next day Mochras sand-hills were visited – a most interesting area for flowering plants as well as for brvophytes; Centunculus minimus was there in quantity. Then the Artro Valley and Nantcol Ravine were explored, a wooded rocky gorge. Coming up to Harlech some members stopped at Dolgelly and climbed Cader Idris, where two new records for Merioneth were added, viz., Herberta adunca and Ptilidium ciliare var. inundatum. On the return journey some members visited Llyn Cae, Cader ldris, and found Lophozia heterocolpa, new to the county, and Lophozia longidens, a second record only, on rocks and walls respectively.

Both Merioneth and Carnarvon have been worked intensively for so many years that very few new records could be expected, but in Tyn-y-Groes (48*) Grimmia subsquarrosa, Leptoscyphus cuneifolius and Cololejeunea microscopica were found.

Only a very small selection of the rare plants seen can be recorded here. In Cwm Bychan Sphagnum *americanum, austini var. imbricatum and forms of S. rubellum, quinquefarium, amblyphyllum var. mesophyllum, and aquatile var. intortum. Several species of Andreaea, Campylopus atrovirens vars. muticus and gracilis, Leptodontium recurvifolium, Philonotis wilsoni, Fontinalis dixoni, Pterogonium gracile var. harlacense, Marsupella pearsoni, Gymnocolea acutiloba, Sphenolobus pearsoni, Mylia taylori, c.fr.

Roadsides near Barmouth:- Grimmia arenaria and stirtoni, Coscinodon cribrosus, Tortula canescens, Riccia nigrella. At Tyn-y-Groes:- Campylopus flexuosus var. zonatus, and C. setifolius, Hylocomium umbratum, Jamesoniella subapicalis, Sphenolobus exsectus and hellerianus, Harpanthus scutatus, Harpalejeunea ovata. Mochras sand-hills:- Amblyodon dealbatus, Bryum pendulum, warneum, calophyllum, marrattii, lacustris, and inclinatum, Aneura incurvata, Moerckia flotowiana, and Petalophyllum ralfsii.

Ceunant Llenyrch:- Grimmia retracta (obtuse-leaved form) and hartmani, Eurhynchium myosuroides var. rivulare, Nowellia curvifolia, Adelanthus decipiens, and Cephalozia leucantha.

Hir Ynys:- Hedwigia imberbis. Artro Valley:- Barbula rigidula, Grimmia retracta, Ulota crispa, bruchii, and ludwigii, Thuidium delicatulum, Sematophyllum micans, Philonotis fontana var. ampliretis, Eurhynchium myosuroides var., Hypnum eugyrium, Metzgeria furcata var. fruticulosa, Fossombronia wondraczeki, Harpanthus scutatus, Plagiochila punctata, and spinulosa var. inermis, Cephalozia media var. pallida, Madotheca porella.

Around Snowdon:- *Ditrichum tenuifolium and zonatum, Campylopus schwarzii, Glyphomitrium daviesii, Encalypta commutata c.fr., Grimmia conferta, elongata, atrata, Oedipodium griffithianum, Webera polymorpha, Hypnum crista–castrensis, Gymnomitrium concinnatum, adustum, and alpinum var. *heterophyllum, Marsupella stableri and sprucei, Scapania ornithopodioides and *Frullania germana, the latter in Cwm Clogwyn on rocks.

The Annual Meeting was held on August 18th, and after the usual business it was decided to hold the next Meeting and Excursion in Somerset for Exmoor, during the week after Easter, 1932.

Eleonora Armitage