THE AGASSIZ ASSOCIATION 



347 



Notes on Moss Study. 



BY A. J. GROUT, PH. [>.. NEW DORP, S. I. 



Before the founding of the Sullivant 

 Moss Society, first organized as a 

 chapter of the Agassiz Association, 

 very little amateur study of our mosses 

 was undertaken as it was the general 

 impression that one could not study 

 mosses without a compound micro- 

 scope. Besides this there was no 

 American literature available for such 

 work. 



When, in 1897, I had finished my 

 graduate work at Columbia, I decided 

 to devote my spare time to making 

 popular study of mosses possible, 

 rather than expend all my energy in 

 more critical taxonomic study. This 

 decision resulted in the Bryologist and 

 in my two books on mosses, notices 

 of which have appeared in the adver- 

 tising columns of this paper. 



What biologic science needs to-day 

 is an increasingly larger number of 

 reliable and widely distributed ob- 

 servers. The great weakness of much 

 biological theorizing is due to insuffi- 

 cient observational data. Darwin's 

 success in propounding theories not 

 essentially new was due to the vast 

 collection of observed facts, made 

 with his almost unparalled patience 

 and persistence. 



It is well within the bounds of fact 

 to say that our knowledge of the 

 North American Moss Flora has been 

 more than doubled by the members of 

 the Sullivant Moss Society since its 

 foundation. Moreover, only a few of 

 the members can be classified as pro- 

 fessional botanists. 



I am writing this article to enlist 

 the interest of the members of the 

 Agassiz Association in the study of 

 my favorite plans for their own pleas- 

 ure and also because they can easily 

 add to the sum total of human knowl- 

 edge by their careful and recorded ob- 

 servations. 



The moss plant consists of a more 

 or less branching stem, covered with 

 leaves and fastened to the soil or other 

 substratum by tiny radicles, which are 

 not true roots, but are much like the 

 root hairs of flowering plants. Re- 

 member that mosses do not produce 



flowers and seeds, but like the ferns, 

 produce spores which do the work of 

 seeds, though quite different in struc- 

 ture and in relationship to the rest of 

 the plant. These spores in mosses are 

 borne in little pods known as capsules, 

 which are usually borne on slender 

 bristle-like stalks called setse. These 

 capsules open by a lid much like that 

 of a common kettle, only the lid is 

 highly convex, or even ends in a long 

 beak in some species. 



Go out in your own yard and look 

 in the moist shaded corners among the 

 grass stems, or even on the shady side 

 of the basement wall and you will find 

 moss plants in plenty, even in the city. 

 Most of these will be indeterminable, 

 but in May or June you will be able 

 to recognize the Urn Moss and a little 

 later the Cord Moss with its queer 

 ridged, one-sided capsules. On the 

 walls or in damp places along the 

 walks, especially if mortar be present, 

 you may find the Hair Moss with its 

 slender hair-like leaves, or perhaps 

 Ceratodon with its dark brown ridged 

 capsules. In dry waste places or 

 along walks you may find the Silvery 

 Moss, which is short and compact and 

 of a pronounced silvery color. All of 

 these, except the last, I found in my 

 yard in Flatbush, Brooklyn, and sev- 

 eral others besides. A trip to the 

 fields and woods most anywhere will 

 yield one or more species of the Hair 

 Cap Mosses with their square (or 

 cylindrical) capsules and wig-like 

 calyptras. 



In moist shaded places in fields and 

 woods, or even in city parks, will be 

 found one or more species of Mnium, 

 characterized by their broad leaves, 

 much curled when dry. Their cap- 

 sules are pendanl and bright and fresh 

 in spring, but brown and withered as 

 the season advances. 



But to see the mosses in their glory, 

 go to the deep mountain woods and 

 delighl your heart in them as did 

 Ruskin in his "Leaves Motionless." 

 The Mountain Fern Moss, the Plume 

 Moss, the Ragged Moss and the deep 

 golden green of Schreber's Hypnum 

 will greet your eye and you will know 

 them at sight if you have with vou in 



