8 THE JOURNAL OF BOTANY 
quently the same author, in his Revision of the North American 
species of Scleropodium (l.c. xxvi. 587 (1899)), wrote :—‘‘I feel 
quite sure that Hypnum lentum Mitt. is at least nothing more than 
a variety of S. cespitosum, and probably is identical with it. S. 
cespitosum was very little known at the time Hypnum lentum was 
published, and a careful reading of the original description will 
1 
botanist either became lost, or was returned to Mr. Mitten and 
mislaid by him, so that it is not now to be found in its place in his 
herbarium. The only example now remaining in Mr. Mitten’s 
herbarium on the sheet marked ‘ H. lentum” is a fragmentary 
specimen, under which is written, “N.W. coast of America, 
sheet marked ‘* N.W. Coast of America, Douglas,” exactly matches 
the plant in Macoun, Canad. Musci, no. 292. On plate 429, I have 
uiting specimen ; I cannot, indeed, detect any diff, ' : 
a specimen I have of ‘JIsothecium lentum’ Mitt, dee V. Piper 
comm. Dr. Best, from Seattle, Wash., while having the compara- 
tively long acumen to the leaves, has much more the habit of our 
ordinary S. cespitosum; it agrees in fruit and leaf-structure So 
that whether it is correctly named /entum or not, it helps to bridge 
in Husnot, Muse. Gall. no. 886, is a very fair parallel, I thi 
The fruiting characters seem identical. I Sertainty should ra 
inclined to make even a variety out of ‘ H, lentum,’”? 
° comparison of the material of S. cespitoswm in the K 
8. Kensington herbaria has convinced me that Mr. Dixon’s — 
