Vol. 51 No.8 
BULLETIN 
OF THE 
TORREY BOTANICAL CLUB 
AUGUST, 1924 
Studies in Tortula as represented in Southern Arizona 
Epwin B. BARTRAM 
Viewed even in a restricted sense the species of Tortula 
from this region present some critical problems that are not 
lacking in interest and suggestion. The section Syntrichia, 
comprising a number of closely related species that have been 
interpreted in various ways by bryological students, is especially 
richly represented and I have been tempted to present some of 
the following conclusions, not as in any sense final but simply 
- as astep toward a more complete understanding of this puzzling 
complex. The scarcity or absence of male flowers and sporo- 
-phytes in several closely related species makes the result of 
critical study somewhat a matter of personal equation. 
ToRTULA MURALIS (L.) Hedw. Represented by a single 
collection, in fruit, from the foothills of the Catalina Mts., on 
the shaded face of a boulder. The lower leaves mucronate and 
the comal leaves with the costa excurrent into a long smooth 
hyaline hair point two times or more the length of the leaf. Prob- 
ably a form of var. incana (Bry. eur 
ToRTULA INERMIS (Brid.) Mont. Common on ledges and 
banks in the foothilis and extending up the mountain canyons 
to an elevation of 6500 ft. The closely folded leaves regularly 
spiralled with a low pitch give the dry plants a distinctive screw 
like aspect in the field that is very characteristic. Dozens of 
collections from widely separated localities are in every way 
uniform and indicate no transitional tendency toward 7. subu- 
ata. The oblong ligulate, mucronate leaves with the margins 
strongly recurved almost to the apex are unlike anything else 
in the region. 
[The BuLLetin for July (51: 283-333) was issued July 24, 1924.] 
330 : 
