CRYPTOGAMIC BOTANY OF ALASKA 

 INTRODUCTION 



BY WILLIAM TRELEASE 



IN the organization of the scientific corps of the Harriman 

 Alaska Expedition the phanerogams were assigned to Mr. 

 Frederick V. Coville, of the United States Department of 

 Agriculture, with Mr. T. H. Kearney, Jr., as assistant, and 

 the cryptogams to Prof. William Trelease, of the Missouri 

 Botanical Garden, with Prof, de Alton Saunders as assistant. 

 While their ultimate responsibility for the treatment of their 

 particular groups was not lost sight of, each of these gentlemen, 

 though giving principal attention to his own group, collected all 

 other botanical material which could be cared for ; and Prof. 

 W. H. Brewer, of Yale University, and Prof. B. E. Fernow, 

 of Cornell University, both accomplished botanists, as well as 

 other members of the party whose immediate interests were in 

 other fields, made large additions to the collections in both 

 departments of botany. In the results of the Expedition re- 

 corded in this volume, all of these collections are taken into 

 account, and credit is given to the respective collectors in the 

 chapters treating of the several groups of plants. 



It was evident that the proper examination of the cryptogamic 

 material required the care of specialists, and too much can not be 

 said in acknowledgment of the service rendered by Professors 

 P. A. Saccardo and C. H. Peck, who appear as joint authors of 

 the chapter on Fungi; of Messrs. J. Cardot and I. Theriot, to 

 whom is due the treatment of the mosses, exclusive of Sphag- 

 num; of Dr. C. Warnstorf, without whose study the species of 



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