50 
Idaho and Eastern Washington. This plant has been referred for 
me to C. spathulata var. tenuifolia Gray. I am convinced that 
this ought not to go into C. spathulata Dougl., for throughout this 
whole country the cauline leaves are never united but spatulate- 
linear. The flowers are also much larger and in much loosef } 
racemes than in this species. Prof. E. L. Greene has sent mea — 
species very near this, only differing in the shape of the cauline 
leaves, the leaves in his specimen being linear and slightly em 
larged at the base, while in this species they are invariably spai- — 
late-linear. 1 should not think this enough to found a species — 
upon and separate it. from his species, which he names C. Sypso 
philoides Fisch. & Meyer, were it not that Dr. Gray says (ProG 
Amer. Acad. 22: 282) that C. gypsophiloides F. & M. is the — 
same as the ¢ype of the species, viz.: C. spathulata of Douglas. — 
Relying upon this, I give this plant of mine the specific name of 
arenicola. If it proves that Dr. Gray is wrong and Prof. Greene — 
tight, this name of mine would probably sink into a synonym 
of C. gypsophiloides. 
UNIVERSITY OF IDAHO, 
Buxbaumia aphylla L, 
Buxbaumia aphylla is generally considered a rare moss, and a 
from its large and peculiar capsule it could not escape notice if it _ 
were at all common. My friends Messrs. Chas. E. and Edwin 
Faxon inform me that usually single plants, or at most two OF — 
three together, have rewarded their patient search. But this De : 
cember it has been very abundant, particularly in the Blue Hill 
region, and in one locality of less than 200 feet square I counted 
the following patches of it: Nine of about one inch square con 
taining from ten to fifteen plants each; one of three by two inches 
of seventy plants; one of two by four inches of eighty-one plants; — 
three patches each about as large as my hand crowded with plants, 
of which one contained two hundred and eighty specimens. I was 
reminded of the pictures of a Roman legion under its testudo 
shields marching to attack a walled town. The locality where 
‘these are growing was burned over in a wood fire eighteen months | 
