THE MOSS AND LICHEN FLORA OF WESTERN EMME' 



COUNTY. 



(AN ANNOTATED LIST OF THE BRYOPHYTES AND 



LICHENS OF THE HIGH LAKE AND DES 



MOINES RIVER REGION.) 



B. O. WOLDEN 



The prairie region does not, as a rule, offer a very rich field for 

 the student of mosses and lichens. However, the territory which 

 this paper attempts to cover does present several features of interest 

 not only to such students but to the general botanist as well. For 

 here we have not only the level prairie, but also lakes and deep 

 woods, dry wooded ridges and shady ravines and hillsides. 



There are chiefly three localities represented in the collections on 

 which this list is based. These are the wooded region around High 

 lake and Mud lake ; the bowlder-strewn knolls and hillsides east 

 of Des Moines river near the southern part of the county ; and the 

 wooded hills and ravines west of Estherville. Of particular interest 

 to the student of local plant life are the High lake and Estherville 

 woods. Here are found a number of plants otherwise rare to this 

 part of the state, many of which have not been reported by botanists. 

 The Estherville woods are interesting ground for the collector be- 

 cause of the diversity of the topography, which is quite rough when 

 compared with the surrounding country. 



It has been the hope of the writer to prepare a more extcnrled 

 paper covering the entire flora of this region, but time has been 

 lacking for completing the collections on which such a paper would 

 have to be based. And as the war conditions make it unlikely that 

 such a hope will be realized this paper is presented with its present 

 limitations. 



By most people these little forms of plant life are overlooked 

 and yet it can not be said that they are at all inconspicuous. In the 

 woods and groves the lichen growths meet our eyes wherever we 

 look, almost, as the tree trunks are, so to speak, clothed with lichens 

 in more open situations. The old stumps are often covered with 



