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MOSSES OF THE VICINITY OF ST. JOHN'S UNIVERSITY, GOLLEGE- 

 VILLE, STEARNS COUNTY, MINNESOTA 



Rev. James Hansen 

 [Read at the Sullivant Moss Society Meeting, Minneapolis, Dec. 28, 1910] 



The territory referred to in the title of this paper is contained within a ra- 

 dius of one mile from St. John's University. The greater part is hilly wood- 

 land, the more important trees being oaks, elms, maple, birch and poplars, — the 

 underbrush consisting largely of hazel, sumach, blackberry, raspberry, haw- 

 thorns, prickly ash, dogwoods, leatherwood and several shrubs of the honey- 

 suckle family. On the south is St. John's Lake, about one mile in greatest 

 length, with a hilly shore and many little bays. There is also the millpond of 

 the Watab, a creek which flows through the meadow land to the north of the 

 buildings. There are many depressions or ponds in the woods which contain 

 water for the greater part of the year. A tamarack swamp, the floor of which 

 consists mostly of peat mosses, mixed with other mosses and liverworts, marks 

 the eastern boundery of of the area. 



The soil is for the most part sandy clay, covered with a thin layer of humus. 

 There is no exposed rock, but occasionally granite boulders occur, while the ele- 

 vation above sea level is between 1,100 and 1,200 feet. 



Since 1908, when the writer joined the Sullivant Moss Society, he has been 

 induced by Dr. Grout's book "Mosses with a Hand Lens" to take an occasional 

 stroll into the environment briefly sketched above, for the purpose of learning 

 something of i s moss flora. 



At first, attention was paid only to such specimens as were found in fruit 

 and in sufficient quantity to yield a number of fairly generous mounts. But it 

 became evident that the strict adherence to this rule would unnecessarily delay 

 the acquisition of a knowledge of the mosses of the neighborhood, so it was modi- 

 fied to include also good sterile specimens, barring only evidently depauperate 

 forms, when found in small quantities. If all species, good or poor, fruiting or 

 sterile, had been collected, undoubtedly they would have doubled or trebled the 

 list, but in almost all other respects the time and labor devoted to them would 

 have been a distinct waste. 



The 58 species collected and mounted for exhibition at the meeting are dis- 

 tributed among 31 genera, on the average, therefore, not even two species to one 

 genus. The genus best represented is Amblystegium, with six species; next 

 Thuidium with five, Hypnum, Mnium, and Brachythecium, with four each, and 

 Bryum and Dicranum with three each. 



All species of the list, except Nos. 6, 30, 55, and 57, are reported for Minne- 

 sota in one or more of the following reports of J. M. Holzinger: Minn. Bot. 

 Studies I: 280, 579, and 590; 2: 36; 3: 109; and Bryologist 13: 50. They 

 may have been reported in lists of later date, but the writer has not seen them. 

 All have been submitted for verification to Mr. N. L. T. Nelson, except those few 

 which the writer thought he could safely classify, e. g., the Catharineas, Poly- 



