THE POLYTRICHACE.E OF WESTERN NORTH AMERICA 



Leaves not crisped when dry, gradually longer upwards; lower 

 leaves distant, small, appressed; upper leaves large, linear from a 

 short sheathing base. Margin sharply serrate. Lamellae 45 55; 

 marginal cells of lamellae much larger, papillose, rectangular or oval, 

 wider than long as 1^ 2:1. 



Calyptra hairy, hardly covering capsule to base. 



Capsule oblong-cylindric, erect, papillose, thin, without stomates. 

 Teeth 32. Lid hemispheric, abruptly straight-beaked. Pedicel 

 slender, flexuous, long. On soil. St. Paul Island, Bering Sea; 

 from the Alaska Peninsula along the coast to southern Alaska; 

 Rocky Mountains of British Columbia and the United States; 

 Portland, Oregon; Adirondack Mountains; White Mountains; New- 

 foundland; Miquelon Island; Greenland; Scandinavian Peninsula; 

 Siberia. 



3. Pogonatum urnigerum (L.) Beauv., in Prodr. p. 84 (1805). 

 Polytrichum urnigerum L., in Sp. PI. II, p. 1109. n. 3 (1753). 



Name derived from urna = urn, and gerere = to bear; probably 

 referring to its erect, wide-mouthed capsule. 



Plants erect, 2.5 7.5 cm - high> dark green, brown below. Stems 

 rigid, sometimes forked at tip. 



Upper leaves lanceolate from a pale sheathing base, crowded, at 

 apex acute to acuminate; when moist patulose; when dry rigid, not 

 crisped, appressed, erect. Margin plane or erect, sharply toothed 

 nearly to sheath. Lamellae 40 50, 4 6 cells high; marginal cells 

 not much larger, rounded, thickened, papillose, yellowish-green. 

 Vein slightly excurrent or vanishing, sharply spinose at back. Cells 

 quadrate-hexagonal or rounded. 



Calyptra longer than the capsule. 



Capsule erect or nearly so, symmetric, wide-mouthed, yellowish- 

 brown to brown, without stomates, very papillose. Teeth 32, red- 

 dish. Beak of lid almost straight, subulate. Pedicel 2.54 cm. 

 long, slender, pale reddish. On soil and soil-covered rocks. 

 Coast of Alaska from Disenchantment Bay near mouth of Yukon 

 River to the vicinity of Juneau; Rogers Pass, Selkirk Mountains, 

 British Columbia; Cathlamet, Washington; Portland, Oregon; 

 Europe; Asia. 



