178 Rhodora [June 
Not all of the specimens collected have as yet been critically ex- 
amined, but it is thought best to publish the list with the other 
papers on the mountain in the present number of RHODORA, and 
leave for further study the undetermined specimens. The introduc- 
tory sketch by Dr. Kennedy and the list of species are followed by 
Mr. Collins’ notes on some of the rarer mosses. 
INTRODUCTORY SKETCH. 
Our path up Mt. Katahdin, after leaving McLeod’s camp, soon 
entered virgin forest where the shade of trees and green carpet of 
mosses refreshed the eyes weary with gazing on the burnt and fallen 
timber and rocky wastes of the Wassataquoik valley. 
The rain came down with less pelting violence, and as I entered 
an area of large white cedars (Arbor-vitae) I found myself thinking 
of Richard Spruce and his wanderings in the Amazon valley with its 
tropical rains. Surely he could not have seen a more abundant 
moss garden than surrounded us, and we instinctively stopped to 
gather, or at least inspect, the mosses into which our feet had 
plunged. But our search was not rewarded by a multiplicity of 
species. It was all Aypnum Schreberi, Willd., Æ. Crista-castrensis, 
L. and Hylocomium splendens (Hedw.) Bry. Eur., with an occasional 
Dicranum on a projecting rock; and during the remainder of our 
walk to camp we saw practically nothing else. Perhaps the rain 
veiled our eyes, perhaps our footsteps needed constant attention, but 
those few mosses and none others were always in evidence, ‘The 
Hylocomium splendens grows only in the woods, but the ZZypnum 
Schreberi and H. Crista-castrensis are found to the very summit of 
the mountain, often in masses and often sparingly mixed with Pogon- 
atums and other mosses. 
If these /7ypna were abundant we were equally surprised at the 
scarcity of tree mosses ; in the evening on comparing notes we found 
that neither of us had observed a moss on a tree, and in our whole 
stay at camp we found none. At what altitude the Neckera, Leuco- 
don and Orthotrichums vanish we cannot say, but our list shows 
none collected on the slopes of Katahdin. In the woods for a few 
miles after leaving the East Branch grow Neckera pennata, Hedw., 
Leucodon sciuroides, Schwaeg. and various Orthotrichums in as much 
luxuriance as in other northern forests, but we saw none on the 
mountain. It is probable that though infrequent they are not 
wholly wanting, for I found on one of the logs of our cabin a little 
