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The Taxonomy of British Bryophytes as a Field for Research

Abstract

THE note in Nature1 on the recently published history of the British Bryological Society ends with these words: "The taxonomy of mosses and liverworts is now largely established, but many bryological matters still require elucidation. Perhaps the post-war period will provide opportunities for detailed ecological studies—the relation of a moss or liverwort to its substrate, its reactions with other plants, and particularly of its unique physiology, which allows a special phenology of reproduction not possessed by any other kind of plant". With the second part of this statement every student of the bryophytes will be in warm agreement; but the first part, with its implication that taxonomically the bryophytes are an exhausted field, perhaps conveys a misleading impression. It may therefore be worth while to survey briefly the present position of bryophyte taxonomy so far as it concerns the British Isles.

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RICHARDS, P. The Taxonomy of British Bryophytes as a Field for Research. Nature 155, 100–102 (1945). https://doi.org/10.1038/155100a0

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