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DEMETRIO'S MISSOURI MOSSES 



Benjamin Franklin Bush 



I have just received from Rev. Father Demetrio a copy of a reprint of "A 

 List of the Mosses Collected in Various Parts of Missouri, " from the Bryologist, 

 10: 103-106. November 1907. 



This interesting paper occupies about three pages, and includes 100 species 

 and varieties of mosses, distributed among 51 genera, and is all the more interest- 

 ing in that it is the first published list devoted exclusively to the mosses of Mis- 

 souri. The fact that this list includes exactly 100 species, at least 60 not previously 

 reported, many of them rare, or at least but little known, and the omission of 

 many common species and varieties, leads one to believe that this list was intended 

 as an initial publication only, to be followed at a later date by another list. It 

 will, no doubt, be of interest to note some of the more common species omitted 

 by Demetrio, which it would seem impossible not to have collected and recorded. 



One of the more common species omitted from the list is Dicranum sabule- 

 torum, common everywhere from St. Louis south to Wayne County and west to 

 Taney County. Fissidens cristatus is common to all the hill country in Southern 

 Missouri, but it is not given in the list. Another very common species to all the 

 Ozark hills is Leucohryum dlbidum, in some places so abundant as to cover the 

 ground, but Demetrio does not give it in his list. There are two species of 

 Barbula not given in his list, B. sqiiarrosa and B. ruralis, the first very common 

 to all the Ozark hills, the last common on rocks all over southern Missouri. 



The delicate little tree-moss, Ptychomitrium incurvum, so common on oak 

 trees in the Ozark region, is not given in Demetrio's list, nor are Orthotrichum 

 Porteri and 0. ohioense, the first being common on top of flat boulders, the last 

 common on oak trees in the Ozark region. In the genus Physcomitrium, only one 

 species is recorded, but I can not understand how P. Hookeri and P. Drummondii 

 could have been overlooked, as both are common on damp ground throughout 

 the State. No species of Bartramia is given in his list, but B. pomiformis is com- 

 mon on gravelly or rocky ground throughout southern Missouri. Philonotis is 

 not represented in the list, but P.fontana is a very noticeable species found around 

 nearly every spring or springy place in the State. Demetrio apparently neg- 

 lected the large handsome Timmia, common along shaded banks in the State, 

 and the similar Catharinea undulata, so abundant on damp shaded banks through- 

 out the State, is also omitted. 



One of the most striking species of moss in southern Missouri is Polytrichum 

 commune, common everywhere on rocky hills, not given in Demetrio's list. Two 

 species of Anomodon, A. rostratus and A. attenuatus, are abundant in many places 

 in woods in the State, on old logs, tree trunks, and on rocks, but both appear to 

 have been neglected by Demetrio. Another very common moss in the State is 

 Entodon cladorrhizans, a species found in woods on old logs, dead trees, and decay- 

 ing wood, but it is not given in the list. One of the most conspicuous species of 

 moss on rocky ground in the Ozark region is Thuidium recognitum, but Demetrio 

 seems to have overlooked it, as well as T. microphyllum and T. virginianum. 



