1912] Nichols,— Notes on Connecticut Mosses,— III 51 
the present case the leaves and stems of the two mosses referred to 
above were covered with a thin, loose crust of calcium carbonate 
which they had apparently precipitated from the water, and which 
gave them an unnatural grayish-white appearance. 
DREPANOCLADUS VERNICOSUS (Lindb.) Warnst. In a boggy swamp 
at the margin of Twin Lakes, altitude 750 feet, Salisbury (G. E. N., 
1911). Determined by Warnstorf. With the exception of D. scorpi- 
oides this is the only one of the Drepanocladi in which the stem lacks 
a central strand. It also differs from all the other Drepanocladi 
thus far recorded from Connecticut in the total absence of specially 
differentiated alar cells. On the whole D. vernicosum is a northern 
moss and has been rather infrequently collected in the United States, 
the only stations in the East that have come to the writer's attention 
being in Ohio, western New York, eastern Pennsylvania, northern 
New Jersey, and northwestern Vermont. It is found in both Europe 
and Asia. 
According to the majority of the European authorities this moss is 
confined to swamps and bogs that are free from lime; so that on first 
thought it would hardly be looked for in the Twin Lakes swamp which 
overlies marl deposits of considerable depth. So far as the writer 
has observed, however, it does not ‘occur around the lakeward border 
of the swamp but grows at a distance from the open water, in places 
where a considerable thickness of peat has been laid down. And this 
seemingly restricted distribution suggests a possible explanation for 
the anomaly. As has been pointed out by Transeau ! humic acid, 
which is particularly abundant in peaty soils, forms insoluble com- 
pounds with alkaline earths. So that where there is an appreciable 
depth of peat the vegetation growing at the surface may be affected 
little or not at all by the calcareous nature of the substratum, owing 
to the fact that whatever lime may be dissolved in the water will be 
precipitated through the action of the humic acid before it has pene- 
trated far into the peat. 
CLIMACIUM DENDROIDES (L.) Web. & Mohr. On moist banks in 
a ravine, altitude 1600 feet, Salisbury (G. E. N., 1911). Determina- 
tion verified by Dr. Grout. The seeming rarity of this moss in most 
parts of the East may in all probability be accounted for by the fact 
that it is usually mistaken for the better known species, C. america- 
num, which it closely resembles in habit and general appearance. 
! Bot. Gaz. 40: 375. 1905. 
