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MOSS NOTES. I 



A. J. Grout 



Recently it was my good fortune to obtain the first ten volumes of the 

 Bulletin of The Torrey Botanical Club complete. I read the first numbers with 

 as much interest as a school girl reads a love story. 



Vol. I, No. I, N. Y., Jan., 1870, begins: "The object of this bulletin is 

 primarily to form a medium of communication for all those interested in the 

 Flora of this vicinity, and thus to bring together and fan into a flame the sparks 

 of botanical enthusiasm, at present too much isolated." 



Reading Mrs. Smith's account of the early history of The Bryologist led 

 me to draw comparisons and to ask questions. Why is it that the Torrey Bul- 

 letin and the Botanical Gazette that started out to help and encourage the amateur 

 have so far changed their nature? And why is it that The Bryologist seems 

 to be traveling along the same road? 



There are several obvious reasons, but my point is this: The Bryologist 

 was founded to bring together and encourage large numbers of amateur observers 

 all over our country, so that they might find enjoyment for themselves and 

 furnish to scientists and to each other data that would enable some one to write 

 a really comprehensive manual of our moss flora. Several times contributions 

 have been solicited, contributions of short and interesting observations by any 

 and every Society member. 



Personally I have felt that it was time for some one else to speak. Others 

 have spoken to be sure, but we have not received the amount of material of this 

 sort that we should have, so this series of articles has been started to give to our 

 Society members something of the kind originally planned. Suggestion as well 

 as statement of fact is a part of the plan. 



BuxBAUMiA INDUSIATA Brid. is one of the rare mosses that I have never 

 collected and which others must have overlooked. Miss Lorenz found it at 

 Willoughby. Prof. Peck collected it near Haines Falls, N. Y., "Probably in 

 the swampy lowlands between Haines Falls and Tannersville." 



Prof. E. J. Durand collected it in Enfield Ravine, Ithaca, N. Y. Specimens 

 of this collection were photographed for the present article. According to Mrs. 

 Britton in The Observer for March, 1896, it has also been collected at Horseshoe 

 Pond in the Adirondacks; near Syracuse, N. Y.; also in Nova Scotia, Idaho, 

 Montana, Washington, British Columbia, and in the White Mountains by Oakes. 

 The plants always grow on decayed wood; one collector says birch, another says 

 that the wood was coniferous and that they grew associated with Georgia pellucida. 



Judging by the published notes and available illustrations, the species are 

 not easily distinguishable without careful study, but if the plants photographed 

 are typical, and there is no reason to think otherwise, one can distinguish B. 

 indusiata at first sight. I wish I might get fresh specimens to photograph. B. 

 aphylla grows on soil, is dark colored, as near a chestnut as anything, flattened 

 with a thickened ridge between the upper and the lower surfaces; spores 5-8^, 

 maturing late autumn to spring. B. indusiata grows on decaying wood, is a 



