TRANSACTIONS 



OF THE 



AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY. 



ARTICLE I. 



ON CALIFORNIAN MOSSES. 



BY LEO LESQUEREUX. 

 Head June 19th, 1863. 



THE history of the Mosses or the Bryologia* of the western shores of the North Ameri- 

 can continent, presents a peculiar anomaly : that of having been noticed by one of the 

 earliest celebrated botanists of England, and of being, even at this time, scarcely known to 

 the scientific world. Menzies collected specimens of mosses in California and Southern 

 Oregon during his travelling explorations from 1787 to 1793. Some of the species were 

 published by himself in the Transactions of the Linnean Society ; others by Hooker in his 

 Muscologia Exotica, and a few by Schwaegrichen. The number of these species was 

 quite small. In Miiller's Synopsis Muscorum, which appeared in 1851, there are only 

 fifteen species published and described from the western shores of North America. 



The first important contribution to the Bryologia of California was made by Dr. Bige- 

 low, botanist of a United States exploration from the Mississippi to the Pacific Ocean 



* I use this word in its general sense as representing the history of the mosses, either in their specific relation 

 or in their local and geographical distribution. 



VOL. XIII. 1 



