MOSSES OF CALEDONIA CREEK. 73 
|From the Tenth Report of the New York Commissioners ot Fisheries.] 
THE MOSSES OF CALEDONIA CREEK. 
By CHARLES H. PECK. 
The plants received from Caledonia creek (the fish-hatching station), are a 
water-cress, a chara, and four mosses, The latter grow in tufts or patches more 
or less dense, either in wet places or submerged in water. When growing in 
or under water, they afford a place of refuge or a habitation, and probably food, 
also, to various water insects and their larvee, small mollusks and crustaceans. 
The mosses received had an abundance of these small animals among their 
branches. I have before observed inhabitants of similar character in tufts of 
moss in swamps and mountain rivulets, but never before have I seen them so 
various and so numerous. Whether this abundance is due chiefly to the char- 
acter of the stream whence the specimens were taken, or to the character and 
plenteousness of the food it affords them, or to both combined, may be a ques- 
tion. But one thing is evident. There cannot long be an abundance of con- 
sumers without an abundance of food to be consumed. The abundance of ani- 
mal life in Caledonia creek implies an abundance of food on which these organ- 
isms exist, and, if we wish to perpetuate or increase this abundance, we must 
preserve or increase the necessary supply of food. 
There is, among the mosses of that locality, one of special interest, both 
because of its rare occurrence, and because of the noticeable coincidence between 
its abundant growth there, and the abundance of animal life that accompanies 
it. It is possible that this coincidence is purely accidental, and yet, on the 
other hand, it is not wholly improbable that there is some important connection 
between the two facts, which would render a brief account of the moss desirable. 
It is known to botanists by the name Hypnwm noterophiluin, or Moisture- 
loving moss, under which name it was described by Messrs. Sullivant and 
Lesquereux. 
Franklin and Lancaster counties, Pennsylvania, are its previously reported 
localities, given on the authority of Prof. T. C. Porter. In those localities it 
is said to grow in limestone springs. It was discovered in the Caledonia locality, 
several years ago, by Hon. G. W. Clinton, but up to the present time this 
remains its only known locality in our State. It is quite evident, therefore, 
that it is a moss of very rare occurrence in our State, although it occurs in 
abundance in this single locality. At Caledonia it grows (according to my 
information) in shallow, mostly quiet or slowly flowing water, attached to peb- 
bles and rocks, and forms quite extensive patches of a dark-green or blackish- 
green color. The stems are generally two to four inches long, though smaller 
forms sometimes occur. ‘They are irregularly branched, the branches being 
rather long, and ascending or nearly erect, so that the moss has a somewhat 
stiff or rigid aspect. The narrow, nearly erect leaves, also add to this peculiar 
appearance. They are furnished with a stout, thick midrib, which extends 
through the leaf and projects a little beyond its apex. In some of the specimens 
nothing remained of many of the lower leaves except this thick midrib, Whether 
the blade of these leaves had been eaten away by the crustaceans and insect 
larvee that hide everywhere among the branches, or whether it had gradually 
