410 -A]>j>< ndix: Seventh Report on the Survey of 



Passing now to the notice of some of the cryptogamic or flower- 

 less plants, it may be remarked that the summit of Mount Marcy is 

 the only locality in which I have met with the peculiar variety of 

 the Interrupted Clubmoss, Zycopodium annotinum, mentioned in 

 the list. It differs from the ordinary form in its smaller size and 

 shorter, more rigid and less spreading, sharp-pointed leaves. It is 

 not plentiful. 



Of the peat mosses the most singular is Sphagnum JPylcesii, 

 together with its variety sedoides, which scarcely differs from the 

 type except by its simple unbranched stems. They are sterile 

 here, and form soft mats of small extent on the wet surfaces of the 

 rocks. The color is vinous red, sometimes tinged with yellow or 

 green. Starting from the thin soil at the upper margin of an ex- 

 posed sloping surface of the rock, the plants lie prostrate on the 

 surface and parallel with each other, their tips pointing downward. 

 Other species of peat moss have an erect mode of growth and are 

 generally much paler in color. 



One of the true mosses, the Shining Feather Moss, Hypnum 

 splendens, found almost everywhere in mountains or hilly districts, 

 also occurs here under the starved balsams of the summit. It is 

 found growing in the woods on the ground, on rocks, or on decay- ' 

 ing trunks of trees. In some places the ground is literally covered 

 with its feathery carpet for long distances. Its stems are not straight 

 and erect, but made up of a succession of peculiar curved segments. 

 By this character it may be easily known. The first year it makes 

 a curved growth of one or two inches. The next year it sends forth 

 a shoot a little below the apex of the stem. This forms another 

 curved portion similar to that already produced. Thus a new curve 

 is added to the stem each year, their projecting tips all pointing in 

 the same direction. This process is repeated indefinitely, but there 

 is a limit to the length attained by the stem, for after a few years it 

 begins to decay at the base and thus to counterbalance the yearly 

 additions made above. Were it not for this decay, the stem would 

 in time become of great length, and the age of the moss could at 

 any time be ascertained by counting the number of arches in its 

 stem. 



The celebrated Iceland Moss, Cetraria Idandica, and the well- 

 known Reindeer Moss, Cladonia rangiferina, scarcely need any 

 special notice. Both are lichens, not true mosses as might be infer- 

 red from their common names. The latter is not at all peculiar to the , , 

 mountains but occurs elsewhere in great abundance. Another Clad- 



