162 ILLINOIS ACADEMY OF SCIENCE 
There is practically no danger of extermination facing this 
pretty species for its home has absolutely no value to man and 
only the wild climbing folk can by any possibility obtain pre- 
carious footing where it dwells in peace. The hog, that arch 
enemy of the wild plant people, can never tread these cliffs and 
the average human plant hog is too solicitous of his neck or 
extremities to venture on these slippery steeps. 
In conclusion, a brief statement of the geographical distri- 
bution of our plant will be interesting. Gray, Britton, Bailey 
and others agree in giving it a far northern range extending 
well into the arctic regions of North America and reaching the 
United States in Northern Maine, Vermont, New York, Upper 
Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota and so North West to the 
Saskatchewan. This remarkable southern extension into the 
northwestern Illinois, therefore, is Mistassinica’s “farthest 
south” by over one hundred miles from any neighboring station. 
The inference is drawn that this station is a remnant of a vast 
horde of the plant that in preglacial days occupied much of the 
rock region of Northeastern North America, the glaciers hav- 
ing obliterated most of these plants, the Illinois locality es- 
caping because the ice destroyer did not there encroach. 
PORTO RICAN FUNGI, OLD AND NEW 
F. L. StEvENS, UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS 
While numerous collectors have focused their attention on 
the flowering plants and ferns of Porto Rico, comparatively 
little study has been made of the lesser cryptogams, especially 
of the fungi. 
Mr. A. A. Heller collected fungi in Porto Rico in January 
and February, 1900, and the collection is reported upon by 
F. S. Earle’. Heller’s collection of December and January, 
1902-1903, are reported also by Earle’. Earle also made re- 
ports of his own observations on the fungi of the island’. Olive 
and Whetzel reported upon several species of rusts which they 
collected in Porto Rico in the summer of 1916." 
Muhlenbergia 1:10, July, 1901. 
Bulletin of the New York Botanical Garden, 3: 301, June 30, 1904. 
Annual report of the Office of Experiment Stations, 454, 1903. 
American Journal of Botany, 1:44-52, January, 1917. 
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