132 Rhodora [July 



Notes on the Preceding List. 



Georgia peUvn'da var. curvata probably occurs througliout New 

 England. It is here interpreted in its extreme form, with the strongly 

 curved capsules. A close series of intergrades between this and the 

 species is common; sometimes they all occur in the same colony. 

 Its claims for varietal rank may be questioned. 



Poqonatum aloides (Iledw.) P. B. (1805) was reported from western 

 Massachusetts in 1833 by Prof. E. Hitchcock, and from Rhode Island 

 in 1846 by S. T. Olney. No record of its occurrence in North America 

 has been, found since the latter date. It is not mentioned in Gray's 

 Manual of 1848 (nor in subsequent moss manuals) althougii P. hre- 

 vicaule, a common New England species which is not given in Ilitcli- 

 cock's list, is there described. It is quite apparent that the P. aloides 

 of this list should be referreti to P. brcvirauk, as the latter was taken 

 up in subsequent lists of western Massachusetts and the former dropped. 

 This is certainly the case with the Rhode Island plant mentioned, for 

 in 1847 Olney corrected his own error of the preceding year. 



Poqonatum alpimim. Linnaeus, in his Species Plantarum, II, 1109 

 (1753), indicates the plant illustrated by Dillenius in his Historia 

 Muscorum (tab. 55, fig. 4) as the one to which his name of Poli/fri- 

 chum alpinum applies. This {)lant, as there figured, is considerably 

 branched and the capsules are elliptic in longitudinal section — at 

 most only twice as long as wide. The same statement will hold tnie 

 for this species as figured in the Bryologia Euroj>aea (tab. 418), in 

 Dixon's Handbook of British Mosses (Ed. 2, tab. 10. B.) and in other 

 recent works, as well as for (presumably) authentic lierbarium niat(>rial 

 of the European j)lant. In 1799 Swartz, in his Muscorum Frontlo- 

 sorum (pp. 76 and 105), described Polytrichum arciicum and figured 

 the capsule (tab. 8, fig. 17). This is short cylindric and somewhat 

 curved, l)eing 2^-3 times as long as broad — not including the lid. 

 He says (1. c. page 100) ''Ohs. Differt a P. alpino L. (cui simillimam): 

 Capsulis omnino absque apophysi basilaris. (Utpsulae in P. alpino 

 ovatae, magisque cernuae." Lesquereux and James (1884), Lim- 

 pricht (1893), Roth (1904), and others, emphasize the short (ellipsoidal, 

 ovate, or ovoid) capsule in P. alpinum and the longer or cylindric 

 capsule in P. arciicum (P. alpinum var. arciicum). 



I have seen no New England material with the elliptic or ovoid 



