-58- 



Hypnum eugyrium Schimp. Rather frequent on stones in mountain brooks, 

 Roan Mt., Tenn.; Swannanoa Mts.; Woodfin Falls. 



Hypnum dilatalum Wils. Stone in brook, Woodfin Creek, upper course in Jones 

 Knob. 



Brachythecium rutabulum (L.) B. & S. Wet place in wood, upper altitude of 

 Grandfather Mt. Grout^^ gives the southern limit as New Jersey and 

 Pennsylvania. 



Brachythecium rivulare B. & S. Stones in brooks, north of Linville Gap; Woodfin 



Falls. Grout^^ gives the southern limit as Virginia. 

 Eurhynchium rusciforme (Neck.) Milde. Stones in brooks, White Rock Mt., 



Tenn.; Woodfin Falls. 

 Cirriphyllum Boscii (Schwaegr.) Grout. Ground in woods, near roads, sterile, 



Swannanoa Mts. The species was not noted at higher altitudes. 

 Hylocomium triquetrum (L.) B, & S. Ground in woods, summit region, Jones 



Knob. 

 Ithaca, N. Y. 



LITTLE JOURNEYS INTO MOSSLAND 



V. — The Old Genus Hypnum 

 George B. Kaiser 



One enters the realm of hypnaceous mosses with somewhat the sensation of 

 a timid wayfarer who, for the first time, ventures into an unexplored region, where 

 every step is fraught with misgiving, along a confusing route which may at last 

 lead him deep into an impenetrable jungle. At least, such were our own impres- 

 sions when we first had to do with what we often characterized as "pesky 

 Hypnums, " breathing anathemas upon them and frequently relegating the speci- 

 mens to the shelf for future study. 



Beautiful though these pleurocarpous mosses may be, the genus Hypnum, 

 as it used to be understood, with the one hundred and ninety-five North American 

 species enumerated and described in the Lesquereux and James Manual, ever 

 presented difficulties for beginners. We mentally placed it in rather the position 

 of Carex, among the sedges, and complicated Compositae, among the higher 

 flowering plants. Only recently has the genus been split into many sub-genera, 

 leaving under the name of Hypnum only the single species, Hypnum Schreberi, — 

 that charming yellowish-green moss which forms such rich and deep glistening 

 cushions in many a moist corner in and at the edge of our woods. 



But after all, according to the French proverb, it is only the first step which 

 costs, and, when the threshold is once fairly crossed, where is the science that does 

 not reveal itself quite simply to the student? One by one the species of these 



^' Mem. Torr. Bot. Club, VI, 177. 1807. 

 '■''Op. cit.. 182. 



