A HYBRID MOSS. 

 By Elisabeth G. Britton. 



m 



R. D. A. BURNETT has been fortunate in re-discovering the 

 same hydrid moss that was first found by Drummond, near 

 St. Louis, Mo., in 1841, and had not been recorded since. In 

 both cases it grew associated with and on the same plants as 

 Aphanorheg?na, differing from the sporophyte of that species in having 

 the seta longer and exserted and the capsule with a small apical lid, a 

 distinct spore-sac, and a darker bordered rim. The differences, how- 

 ever, are entirely in the fruits, as no distinction has been discovered 

 in the leaves, they being all normal ones of ^///^;z^r/^t;^;//«. Mr. Bur- 

 nett found his specimens growing on the ground where the ashes of 

 some old ties had made a bare spot near the tracks of the Erie railroad 

 at Bradford, Pennsylvania. They were associated with Fiinaria hygro- 

 inetrica, Bryuin argenteiiin, etc., and were recognized by him as being 

 abnormal. I described and figured Drummond's specimens in the 

 B2illeti7i of tJie Torrey Botanical Club for February, 1895 (22: 65 t. 

 231 ), and these of Mr. Burnett's agree in every way, even to the size 

 of the spores, the length of the pedicels, and the immature and often 

 aborted condition of the exserted, hybrid sporophytes. It is most in- 

 teresting that this should be the case, considering the distance in 

 time and space, and argues for the identity of the parents, but in 

 both cases the father is unknown, and it is to be regretted that a 

 search was not made at this station the following spring in order to 

 learn if any plants of Physcomitriiini turbinatum made their appear- 

 ance in the spot where these grew. It does not seem likely that the 

 antheridial plant of Funaria could have been the male parent, as that 

 species has long, slender, curved pedicels and the hybrids all have 

 short, stout, rigid, straight pedicels. 



It is more probable that the antheridial plants of PhyscoDiitrium 

 mature in the autumn, and that fertilization takes place then and 

 during the winter, as the sporophyte of Physcoiuitriuiii turbiiiatiun 

 always makes its appearance in the early spring. 



March 28, 1898. 



In the herbarium of the Field Columbian Museum the American 

 genera are placed in manilla covers, the European in green, the 

 African in blue, the Asiatic in red, and the Oceanian in yellow. If a 

 similar color scheme could be adopted in all of our large herbaria it 

 would save much time in consulting them. 



