1900] Huntington, — Some uncommon mosses 95 
those who are ignorant not only of fungi but of other departments of 
botany as well. To make up in some slight degree for the lack of a 
comprehensive systematic work on mushrooms, synopses of various 
genera, with descriptions of the species most likely to be met with, are 
given in the more recent bulletins. It is to the bulletins that the Club 
owes its large membership in many cities of the South and West. 
For the preservation of a record of the distribution of species, and 
for collecting other information of scientific value, an herbarium has 
been started, to which have already been added most of the more 
conspicuous fungi to be found in the neighborhood of Boston. It is 
the wish of a few of the more devoted and enthusiastic workers to make 
this herbarium of more general use to the Club members by placing it 
in a suitable room, in some part of Boston easily accessible, with some 
one in attendance to help in the identification of specimens. 
For membership in the Club the only qualifications are an interest 
in mushrooms and the payment of one dollar each year. 
The officers for the current year, which ends on April 3o, are: 
President, George B. Fessenden; Vice-president, Wm. C. Bates ; 
Recording Secretary and Treasurer, Miss Jennie F. Conant; Corre- 
sponding Secretary, Hollis Webster, P. O. Box 2r, Cambridge, Mass. 
SOME UNCOMMON MOSSES IN NORTHERN ESSEX COUNTY, 
MASSACHUSETTS. 
J. W. HUNTINGTON. 
PERHAPS it might be interesting to the readers of RHODORA to know 
that quite a number of species of mosses considered very rare or un- 
known to the State of Massachusetts are found quite plentifully in the 
towns of Essex County, north of the Merrimac River, especially Ames- 
bury. This town is a particularly good locality, from the fact that it 
has a diversity of habitat, and so is well adapted to the growth of 
many species. The centre of the town is, in fact, a swamp, which is 
undoubtedly of glacial origin, a well-defined moraine skirting its entire 
southern border, sometimes cutting across and making little bays of 
swamp land, which it is quite interesting to follow out and study. 
The borders of this swamp are somewhat depressed, while the centre is 
crowning, making a very noticeable difference in the distribution of 
certain species of mosses. For instance, Hylocomium squarrosum, 
