7 b Rhodora [April 



Lake, Franklin County (.1. Lor ens). New Hampshire: White Moun- 

 tains (IT. Oakes, C. F. Austin, distributed in Hep. Bor.-Amer. 14)- 

 Vennont: Handcock and Rochester 1 (I). L. Dutton 6SS, 906). In 



addition to the stations given by Austin and Howe the following sta- 

 tion outside New England may be noted: valley of the Barrasois 



River, Cape Breton, Xova Seotia (<7. K. Nichols 2i)4)- 



The history of Scapania Oakesii gives evidence that its claims for 

 recognition as a species are not very strong. As originally proposed by 

 Austin it was based on four specimens, the first two from the White 

 Mountains, New Hampshire, collected by Oakes, the third from the 

 "Lake Superior region, Canada," collected by Macoun, and the fourth 

 from "Observation Inlet, Columbia, Oregon," collected by Scouler. 

 These are described as varieties a, /?, 7 and 8, respectively. In Hep. 

 Bor.-Amer. t4 (1873) Austin distributed specimens from the White 

 Mountains collected by Oakes and by himself. He compared the spe- 

 cies with N. undtdata, var. purpurea Nees, but emphasized the large 

 spur-like teeth on the keels of the uppermost leaves as an important 

 distinguishing character. 



Nothing further was added to our knowledge of S. Oakesii until 

 Howe - described and figured it from specimens which he found at 

 Eureka and Kneeland Prairie Road, California. According to his 

 account the plants from California are usually smaller than those 

 from New Hampshire lint agree closely with those from Observatory 

 Inlet. He notes their superficial resemblance to S. ncniorosa but 

 considers them distinct both from this species and from »S'. imdulata 

 (L.) Dumort. 



In his monograph of the genus Scapania, Midler,'' in reducing S. 

 Oakesii to a variety of S. dentata Dumort., stated that he had examined 

 Austin's plant in two different sets of exsiccati. In one he found 

 nothing but S. iieinorosa; in the other a mixture of two plants, one' 

 being a green form of S. imdulata and the other a reddish plant which 

 he took to be the true S. Oakesii. He finds no important characters 

 to separate this plant from «S\ dentata, and remarks that the carina! 

 teeth, upon which both Austin and Howe laid emphasis, represent 

 an uncertain character found now and then in many other species of 

 Sea paiiia. In the fourth series of the writer's Notes on New England 



1 The Rochester .specimens were cited under S. dentata in RhodOKA 12: 204. 1911. 



2 Mem.Torrey t'lul>7: 151. pi. 108, 109. 1899. 



3 Nova Acta A end. Caes. Leop.-Carol. 83: 102,114. 1905. 



