— 19 — 



none, the mouth bordered by 5-6 rows of smaller, denser, quadrate cells; walls 

 thin; spores brown, papillose, 18-24JU in diameter, ripe in winter. 



New Providence, Eleuthera, Andros, Great Bahama, Abaco and Acklin's 

 Island. Type from Finder's Point, Great Bahama, Britton and Millspaugh, 

 2515. February, 1905. Bahama Hymenostomum. 



New York Botanical Garden 



LITTLE JOURNEYS INTO MOSSLAND 



TIL — Bryologizing in Early Spring 

 George B. Kaiser 



Early spring is a particularly good time to go moss-hunting. Not only 

 do many of our common species mature their spores at this season, but the as 

 yet scant growth of grasses and other herbaceous plants allows us to more readily 

 see and collect specimens — especially of several very small bryophytes which 

 later more easily escape our attention. 



Observe those clayey banks covered with an abundant green felt of pro- 

 tonema and you will see groups of sturdy gray sporophytes, two to three inches 

 high, standing up straight as soldiers, their hair-caps mostly gone and the Poly- 

 trichum-like peristome exposed. This moss is Pogonatum brevicaule and, towards 

 the South, on bare sandy banks, one may find the nearly allied Pogonatum 

 brachyphyllum, whose leaves and fruiting parts have a decidedly reddish tinge. 



Closely examining other clayey or marly banks one may here and there 

 see tiny dark red dots. These dots generally prove to be male plants of Acaulon 

 rufescens, showing antheridia clustered amid rosettes of minute leaves with 

 very clear and large cells. The female plants occur far less often and I have 

 collected them but once. This was on a day in March some years ago, when 

 Mr. Chamberlain and I were in a party led by Dr. C. C. Abbott to view the 

 great white oak in the Meeting House grounds at Crosswicks, New Jersey. 

 Our way passed along the then much swollen waters of Crosswicks Creek and 

 to avoid the muddy conditions of the streamside we entered a fallow field. Bryo- 

 logically this was a fortunate move, for in that field we found three exceedingly 

 interesting dwarfs among the mosses. We were soon upon all fours examining 

 them. 



The first one was the afore-mentioned Acaulon in fine fruiting condition, 

 displaying round capsules of light brown immersed among the pink-tinted leaves. 

 Phascum acaulon (P. cuspidatum) , the second, was not difficult to differentiate 

 under the handlens. The plants were longer, the capsules not quite so immersed, 

 and the leaves distinctly pointed and twisted. 



The third, Astomum Sullivantii, was probably the most attractive of the 

 trio, with its evident, glossy, dark-brown capsules appearing among the beauti- 

 fully twisted leaves. Both the Phascum and Astomum I have often found 



