MEMOIRS 



PRESENTED TO THE CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 



VOLUME I. 



I. A Catalogue of the Species of Mosses found, up to the present time, on the North- 

 West Coast of the United States, and especially in California. 



By LEO LESQUEREUX. 



[Presented Dec. 2d, 1867.] 



PRELIMINARY NOTICE. This catalogue comprises all the species of Mosses 

 found, up to the present time, so far as I know, on the western coast of North Amer- 

 ica, from the Mexican boundary to British Columbia. Most of the species are from 

 California, gathered there by Dr. Bigelow, and Messrs. W. H. Brewer and H. N. 

 Bolander of the State Geological Survey. It is to the last-named gentleman that the 

 Bryology of the State of California is chiefly indebted. To render this list more com- 

 plete, I have admitted into it the species collected by Dr. Lyall, in Oregon, on the 

 Northwest Boundary Survey, along the 49th parallel, from the western base of the 

 Rocky Mountains to Vancouver Island included. 



I have not attempted, in this enumeration, to suggest any peculiar system of 

 nomenclature or classification ; but have merely followed what I considered the most 

 natural grouping, copied from the " Bryologia Europsea," and from Schimper's Synop- 

 sis of European Mosses. New systems of classification are now originated in bryologic 

 science, as it appears to me, for the mere satisfaction of their authors, and without the 

 slightest advantage to science. Indeed, these new systems have had a most baneful 

 influence on the study of this most interesting department of botanical science. A 

 discussion of their merits or rather, their demerits will, especially in a catalogue 

 like this, be useless. 



Some species of mosses, considered as new and distinct by authors of high repu- 

 tation, are included in this catalogue as mere varieties. The flora of California, in all 

 its departments, is liable to great local varieties, according to the peculiar atmospheric 

 and chemical conditions to which it is subjected. The more the phanerogamic flora of 



MEM. CAL. ACAD. SCI. TOL. I. 1 Jan - 1868. 



