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American fossil mosses, with description of a new species from 
Florissant, Colorado 
ELIZABETH GERTRUDE BRITTON AND ARTHUR HOLLICK 
(WITH PLATE 9 ) 
During the summer of 1906 Professor Theo, D. A. Cockerell 
and his wife spent several weeks at Florissant, Colorado, collect- 
ing fossil plants. Among those collected was found a beautifully 
preserved fruiting tuft of a moss, which was kindly transmitted to 
us for examination and description. The specimen was obtained 
from the well-known Tertiary shales of that locality, from which 
quantities of fossil insect and plant remains have been secured by 
many different collectors from time to time; but among the 
thousands of specimens thus brought to light only three have been 
heretofore described as mosses, viz. 
Hypnum Haydenit Lesq. Ann. Rept. U. S. Geol. and Geog. 
Surv. Terr. 1874: 309. 1876; Bull. U. S. Geol. and Geog. Surv. 
1: 583. “1875” [1876]; Rept. U. S. Geol. Surv. Terr. 7 
(Tert. Fl.): 44. pl. 5.f. 14, 144, 146. 1878. (PLATE 9, FIGURES 
I, Ia. 
Fontinalis pristina Lesq. Rept. U. S. Geol. Surv. Terr. 8 (Cret. 
and Tert, Fl.): 135. p4.2% f. 9. 1883... (PLATE 9, FIGURES 2, 
2a.) 
Hypnum Brownii Kirchner, Trans. Acad. Sci. St. Louis 8: 
178. pl. 12.f. 4, 4a. 1898. (PLATE 9, FIGURES 3, ee 
None of these, however, is a fruiting specimen, and the generic 
determinations were based entirely on the leaf-characters, which, 
even if well defined, would not in themselves be characters from 
which generic or even family relationships could be satisfactorily 
determined. In this connection it may be suggested that the species 
first mentioned is more indicative of a Lycopodium ora conifer than 
of amoss, and the author voices his uncertainty in acknowledging 
that “the apparently thick leaves seem abnormal for a species of 
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