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XLV. ON SOME MOSSES AT HIGH ALTITUDES. 



J. M. HOLZINGER. 



During a short visit in Colorado, in June of 1896, it was 

 my good fortune to be able to arrange an ascent of Pike's Peak 

 on foot. On this trip I collected some interesting mosses at un- 

 usual elevations. The object of this note is to call the attention 

 of all botanists who may have the opportunity to collect on top 

 of this or similar high mountains to the fact that a consider- 

 ably varied moss flora is thriving near and at its very top, and 

 under conditions that would hardly warrant the expectation of 

 a single species of moss. So far as the records of altitudes 

 with collecting stations go to show, field workers had hereto- 

 fore not looked for, and so had not collected mosses above 

 12,000 feet altitude. Indeed, few species are credited with an 

 altitude greater than 8,000 — 10,000 feet, either in Europe or 

 North America. Yet, my collection from above the Saddle 

 House, altitude 12,502 ft., to the top of the peak, altitude 14,147 

 feet, has yielded over twenty- five species of mosses, nineteen 

 of which I have been able to determine. My list is appended. 



1. Andreaea petrophila Ehrh. Sterile and fruiting. 



This moss occurs abundantly above 12,000 feet elevation on 

 the red granitic boulders that make up the vast, bleak, convex 

 pile of the top of Pike's Peak. Although I was on the^sunny 

 side of the top, and my visit occurred on June 7, this, 

 and in fact all the rock mosses collected near the top, fre- 

 quently occurred on the under side of the great rock masses, 

 in close contact with the snow and ice, that finds a peren- 

 nial home among these cyclopean masses of rock. 



Along with what agrees fairly well with typical Andreaea 

 petrophila, and especially near the top of the peak, I found 

 sods that differed considerably from the usual forms, having 

 the leaf margins strongly rolled in. showing in cross-section 



