Jennings: Manual of Mosses 7 



The rotal number of genera, species, and varieties recognized in this 

 Manual as having been collected or authoritatively reported in western 

 Pennsylvania is as follows: 



Genera Sfjecies Varieties 



Sphagnales 1 24 7 



Andreaeales 1 2 — 



Bryales Ill 260 26 



Total 113 286 33 



Directions for Collecting, Preparing, and Preserving 

 Specimens of Mosses 



For the benefit of those who may not be familiar with the usual methods 

 of collection and preservation of bryological specimens the following notes 

 may be of use. 



Specimens of Bryales should be collected in fruit (rip>e sporophytes) as 

 far as possible. Specimens of Sphagnum are desirable in fruit, but deter- 

 mination is best made in this group from the vegetative characters. Specimens 

 of mosses when collected should be placed at once in envelopes or other suit- 

 able paper pockets and the data of collection, especially habitat, should be 

 written upon the envelope. Many collectors prefer to number the envelope 

 and under the corresponding number make note of the data in a note-book. 

 Collections may be carried home in a basket or regular tin collecting case and, 

 if carefully placed in the envelopes in the first place, the specimens need not 

 be taken out of the envelopes but the envelopes should be placed between 

 blotting papers or newspapers and subjected to a slight weight and so placed 

 that they will soon dry. A few books or two or three bricks are usually suffi- 

 cient weight for drying a package of mosses. Too much weight should be 

 guarded against, as the habit of the plant, i. e., the position assumed by leaves, 

 branches, etc., is often a great help in determining the species, and, if too much 

 weight is used in drying, the specimens will be so flattened as to destroy 

 these characters. 



When dry, the specimens may be placed in paper pockets made from a 

 rectangular piece of paper by folding up the lower part of the rectangle to 

 within about one inch of the upper edge and then folding down this inch flap 

 over the first flap. The two ends should now be folded backward for about 

 one inch each and the pocket is then complete and ready for the reception 

 of the moss. The regulation method in most larger herbaria is to glue this 

 pocket in the middle of the back, midway between the two folded ends, to a 

 so-called "herbarium sheet" which is uniformly of white stiff paper measuring 

 115/2 by 16^2 inches. For small private collections smaller sizes are sometimes 

 used. On the lower right-hand corner of this sheet is written the name of the 

 species, and the number of specimens which such a sheet will accommodate is, 

 of course, restricted only by the space occupied by the pockets. The label for 



