— 6 — 



under the handlens, down to the very base of the leaves. The entire-bordered 

 leaf of Mnium punctatum, which was evident on only one bank, served as an 

 introduction to this third species. 



How fascinating were the perpendicular rocks, which even in midsummer 

 drip with the water from springs! Behind the ice, like those objects the geol- 

 ogists have found encased in amber, appeared the hepatics: Marchantia poly- 

 morpha, showing behind the glassy covering the gemmae cups, whose biscuit- 

 shaped bodies awaited distribution; and Conocephalum conicum, that other 

 species which even under the handlens so well exhibits the air pores — those 

 primitive stomata — resembling tiny craters. Behind this ice the water con- 

 stantly flowed downward, the elongated air-bubbles appearing like tadpoles, 

 ever wiggling their way in amazing sinuosities. 



The base of other banks, laid bare, displayed unbroken masses of another 

 hepatic, PelHa epiphylla, the globular spore-cases already visible at the edge 

 of the thallus and the whole plant at this season clad in a hue of decided red. 

 This assumption of a deep maroon color in winter would be a pretty problem 

 for the physiological botanist and is only one of the many which might engage 

 a bryologist keen for research work. 



Again, already like old friends, Dicranella and Caiharinea clothed many a 

 bank, and, in moist crevices showing abundant spears of the developing sporo- 

 phytes with deep red setae, was Pohlia nutans, that oft-present species so many 

 times proving its identity by the serrate borders of the slender leaves when 

 the beginner thinks he may have collected a rare Bryum. 



But over all this world of mosses the sun emanated the dominant charm — 

 our luminary who had been so chary of showing himself during the previous 

 weeks. The lungs expanded with the intoxication of the vernal air, and the 

 eyes were dazzled with contrasts of green and gold and white, sowing pictures 

 of striking changing colors among this lovely valley of a thousand trickling 

 thaw-made streamlets. And, in the later afternoon, when the sunbeams were 

 growing slant, in a cozy little rift among the mossy rocks, Bartramia pomiformis, 

 then first found, to be known ever afterward as a true friend, saluted the de- 

 parting wayfarer with its soft pale-green cushions covered with the tiny green 

 apples of the swelling though quite immature sporophytes. Worthy plant to 

 commemorate our worthy John Bartram, one of the earliest botanists of Phila- 

 delphia—a fitting discovery to conclude the delightful bryological experiences 

 of that warm February day which was a harbinger of other balmier days to 

 come in the enchanting Maytime when the capsules of that same Bartramia 

 would be mature, to scatter their spores and perpetuate the beauty of this deli- 

 cate species as well as the memory of that estimable Friend, whose former abode 

 and gardens may still be visited beside the Schuylkill River in West Philadelphia. 



Philadelphia, Pa. 



