Check-list of European and N. A. Mosses. 17 



Check-list of European and North American 

 Mosses (Bryineae). 



By N. Cone. Kixdbbrg, Ph. D. 



While at work on my Catalogue of Canadian Plants, I 

 met with great difficulty in getting my collections of mosses 

 correctly named. After submitting them to various special- 

 ists for a series of j^ears, I saw that as species multiplied the 

 confusion became greater, many diverse forms were being 

 placed together, and often no two bryologists agreed as to 

 what certain specimens should be called. In fact, they 

 neither had time nor inclination to work up my material, 

 and so gave names without sufficient examination. In the 

 winter of 1886 Dr. Kindberg, of Linkoeping, Sweden, took 

 the matter up and entered heartily into the work of making 

 careful examination of all my Canadian collections of 

 Mosses. Since then he has been able to bring comparative 

 order out of chaos. Part VL of my Catalogue of Canadian 

 Plants, containing the Musci and including over two 

 hundred descriptions of new species, was in great part his 

 work. Since the publication of Part VI. he has been con- 

 tinuously engaged on a synopsis of the moss flora of North 

 America, and has one section — the Pleurocarpous Mosses — 

 written. The list now published is the outcome of that 

 work and is intended to show the mosses of both Europe 

 and America in a tabulated form. 



As this list adds many names to my catalogue and alters 

 others and includes many species collected since its publica- 

 tion, I propose following the list with a series of papers on 

 Canadian Musci, which will include, besides Dr. Kindberg's 

 work, that of Mrs. E. Gr. Britton of Columbia College, New 

 York, and the revisions of M. Jules Cardot of Stenay, France, 

 and others engaged in special work. The intention of the 

 writer is to see that Canadian Bryology will be kept abreast 

 of the times, although other duties cause him to pass the 

 microscopic work of examination into the hands of special, 

 ist who are more competent to do the work. 



John Macoun. 



Ottawa, March 12th, 1894. 



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