HEPATIC^ OF ALASKA 



BY ALEXANDER W. EVANS 



OUR knowledge of the Hepaticae occurring in Alaska, 

 although doubtless still very incomplete, has been materially 

 increased by the collections of the Harriman Expedition, the 

 number of known species having been nearly doubled. The 

 collections made by earlier visitors to the Territory were for the 

 most part small and fragmentary, and it was upon these that 

 our previous knowledge was based. Up to the close of 1899, 

 forty-one species had been recorded as Alaskan ; the deter- 

 minations of several of these, however, must be looked upon 

 with a certain degree of doubt. The first reference to Alaska 

 Hepaticae is found in the * Synopsis Hepaticarum ' of Gottsche, 

 Lindenberg, and Nees von Esenbeck, published in 1844-47. In 

 this volume, five species are quoted, the specimens mentioned 

 (with one or two possible exceptions) being preserved in the her- 

 barium of the Imperial Academy of Sciences at St. Petersburg. 

 It is quite probable that certain of these plants would now be re- 

 ferred to different species. In 1867, Dr. J. T. Rothrock 1 pub- 



1 Sketch of the Flora of Alaska. Rept. Smithsonian Ins. for 1867: 462. 

 [287] (340 



