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SULLIVANT MOSS CHAPTER NOTES. 



HOW I FOUND SCHISTOSTEQA OSMUNDACEA. 



By J. Warren Huntington. 



I count my find of this little "cave-dweller" as one of the best that I 

 have ever made, and I found it entirely by accident, as many of my best 

 finds have been. It was on one of those splendid wooded hillsides which 

 we may find in any hill town of New Hampshire. I explored that morning' 

 a little brook that trickled down the hill over boulders covered comjjletely 

 with mosses like Hypnum ruscifonne and various forms of Fissidens and 

 Fontinalis. On each side rose ledges of granite shaded by clumps of Moun- 

 tain Maples. I climbed the bank to the left and searched awhile on the 

 ridge for lichens and hepatics. Taking my way back towards the brook I 

 came to a mass of rocks tilted together in such a way as to form something 

 like a cave; looking ^own this fissure into the semi-darkness I saw a little 

 circle of light about a foot in diameter. Thinking this might be some decay- 

 ing matter that gave out phosphorescent light. I examined some of it and 

 found I had a very delicate frond-like moss which proved to be Schistostega 

 osmundacea. Dr. Best, to whom I sent a specimen, put me right as to its 

 luminous appearance, as I had mistaken its light as due to phosphorescence 

 instead of its cells being constructed so as to focus the light rays and then 

 reflect them. So this is the way I found the " Leuchtmoos." 



The note about Gym7iostomum curvirostrum scabrum Lindb. in the 

 October Bryologist, calls to mind a collection of this moss which I made at 

 Winslow, Maine, on September 3, 1898. The banks of the Kennebec river 

 here are formed of slate containing considerable lime. The moss grew 

 quite abundantly in crevices along the almost perpendicular banks, wher- 

 ever the drip from above furnished sufficient moisture. At times the deep 

 green tufts with their chestnut capsules, would be a yellowish white, owing 

 to the limey incrustation. 



Growing with the Gyinnosto7nuin were many plants of Preissia coininii- 

 tata^ Nees, but always provokingly sterile. A careful comparison of the 

 Gyinnostomuin was made with plants, in the herbarium of Mr. J. F. Collins, 

 of Providence, collected by Mr. J. W. Holzinger at Rollingstone, Minn,, 

 September 2, 1889. Edward B. Chamberlin. 



Miss Harriet B. Bailey has collected at Kentville, Nova Scotia, fine 

 specimens of Bryiiui proligeruin. They were found growing on a hard 

 wet sandy bank with abundant propagulse. One fruiting specimen was 

 found which she has presented to the New York Botanical Garden. Dupli- 

 cates have been sent to Prof. Macoun and the Sullivant Moss Chapter. She 

 also collected at the same locality fine specimens of Raphidosiegiinn Jamesii 

 growing on spruce trees. 



Elizabeth G. Britton. 



