12G 



i 



Vol. iii. 66, IS the most satisfactory disposition of it, and that 

 the varieties named by Dr. flngchiiann in the fifth edition of 

 Gray's Manual are better regarded as forms. 



N. L. Britton. 



On Buxbaumia indusiata. Bridel. 



J 



In a small collection of mosses lately sent from the new 

 State of Washington by Mr. Charles V. Piper, there were a few 

 small specimens of Buxdtruwm, which were found growing on wet 

 logs at Seattle in June, 1889. The plants were still attached to 

 bits of the log, and were surrounded with TetrapJiis pcllucida^ a 

 Hypnuni and five species of Hepaticre.* The wood of the log is 

 reddish-brown in color, and is plainly coniferous; it may be 

 Thuya giganica. The plants of /> uxdaum/a Rve VRther over-ma- 

 ture, and have lost their opercula, and the outer peristome is 

 pretty much gone also. The capsules are irregular in shape, but 

 on the average more ovate-cylindrical than those of B. aphylla^ 

 and are paler in color. Recognizing them as probably Btixhaumia 

 indusiata, it became desirable to prove them to be this species, 

 the existence of which in the western hemisphere had never to 

 my knowledge been announced or even suspected. 



I could not obtain a satisfactory peristome, and though the 

 habitat, on wet decaying logs, the shape of the capsules and the 

 color were all that one should look for ui B. indusiata, some- 

 thing more was wanting. Noticing that Schimpcr says that the 

 spores of B, indusiata arc thrice the diameter of those of B. 

 apJiylla, I compared the spores of the Washington plant with 

 those of B, aphylla from Connecticut, and found them about two 

 and a half times larger, and all doubt of the reahty of Mr. Piper's 

 most interesting discovery vanished. 



Mrs. Britton, on learning of this discovery, most kindly shared 

 with me a iQ\N plants of a Bnxbanniia collected March 23, 1889, 

 by Mr. J. B. Lcibergon decaying logs in Kootenai County, Idaho, 

 and these also proved to be B, indusiata, one or two of them 



^Prof. Underwood has kindly identified these IlepaticiTC ; Aucura palnuiia is the 

 most abundant species; the others are Ccphalo'-Ja rnuliijlora^ C, hicKs^idafa , Jtwgcr- 

 ma>inia inasa and Blcf^Jiarostojua frich oj^hyllujn, ^\\Q Ifypnu7u is apparently a young 

 plant of Plagiofhccitfiii loidnlalitnt^ 



