TWENTY-SEVENTH ANNUAL MEETING. 181 



In looking over the entire list of Kansas mosses, I find there are 165 distinct 

 species, besides about 10 varieties, reported up to the present date. This list is 

 necessarily very incomplete, as but a small portion of the Kansas mosses have 

 been collected and studied. 



Of the 23 tribes found in North America, 14 only are represented in this list. 

 They are the following: Phasceae, Weisiae, Pottieae, Grimmieae, Orthotricheae, 

 Tetraphideae, Physcomitrieae, Bartramieae, Bryeae, Polytricheae, Fabroneae, 

 Leskeaceae, Orthothecieae, and Hypneae. 



The 128 genera found in North America are represented by 50 genera in Kan- 

 sas. Forty-five of the 165 species are found in the immediate vicinity of Man- 

 hattan; while about 30 have never been reported from Kansas before. 



Nearly all collecting has been done in the eastern third of the state, so that 

 the mosses of the remaining two-thirds are unknown, except for a few scattering 

 specimens. 



Almost one-fifth of the moss flora of Kansas belongs in the great genus 

 Hypnum; about one-half are distinctly eastern species; 10 are southern; 3 are 

 Rocky Mountain species; 2 are Californian; about a dozen are central; 10 are 

 distinctly Kansan; and the remainder are cosmopolitan species. 



This shows that our moss flora is composed of vagrants from every region in 

 North America, as here is the middle ground where the different flora meet, or 

 overlap; Kansas being the extreme limit of many species. 



When the mosses of the western part of the state are more thoroughly studied, 

 no doubt some entirely new species will be added to the present list, while the 

 conclusions may be quite different from those now reached, for there is reason to 

 believe that mosses, as well as other plants of the western plains, are quite char- 

 acteristic. However, there is no doubt that as we go further west on the arid 

 plains, the number of mosses decreases with the moisture until we reach the 

 Rocky Mountains, where there is both shade and moisture to favor their growth. 



Manhattan, Kan., June, 1S93. 



