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FUNARIA AMERICANA LINDB. 



John M. Holzinger. 

 After fifteen years of collecting around Winona I found this beautiful 

 species for the first time this spring (1901). It occurs abundantly on a bluff 

 400 feet above the level of the Mississippi, at the base of north-facing lime- 

 stone exposures, on rich leaf mould among grass. The young plants with 

 pedicels hardly yet raised above the leaves were found the middle of April, 

 and were with some confidence referred to Pyramidula tetragona, for the 

 parts figured for this species in Husnot "Muse. Gail." seemed to agree well 

 with these young plants. Fortunately the station is not distant — is in fact in 

 sight of my study window, so that I was able to watch the maturing of the 

 plants which takes place about the middle of May. Though I had no ma- 

 terial of this species the certain determination was possible by the aid of 

 Sullivant's excellent plate and description (I cones Muscorum Suppl., 30, 

 Plate 19).* Sullivant there also gives an interesting account of the naming 

 of this plant. From Mrs. Britton I learn that since Muhlenberg and James 

 collected it in Pennsylvania, Lesquereux found it in the mountains of Geor- 

 gia and Mrs. Spence near Springfield, Ohio, Minnesota becomes the fifth 

 station. 



SELIGERIA TRISTICH A B. & S. 



By John M. Holzinger. 



This rare little moss is so far reported from Ohio only, outside of 

 Europe and Siberia. A plant collected by Dr. G. G. Kennedy in Connec- 

 ticut, and at first referred to Seligeria calcarea, seems to belong rather to 

 this species. It is a more luxuriant plant than European specimens in my 

 herbarium. I take it that this accounts for the homotropous leaves on the 

 fruiting stems, which here frequently reach almost to the capsule and are 

 quite soft, not at all rigid as is uniformly the case in this genus. This lax- 

 ness also tends to obscure the tristichous leaf arrangement. Yet with these 

 exceptions it undoubtedly agrees with a plant collected by Schlegel and 

 Arnell in Sweden, which has the capsule exactly as hemispherical as in Dr. 

 Kennedy's plant. In both, the thick seta is little over twice as long as the 

 large cylindrical vaginule, and is distinctly curved. . This absence of 

 straightness I had supposed to be accidental till I examined the Swedish 

 plant. A plant collected by Reinsch in the F'ranconian Jura has the seta 

 also not quite straight, but a distinct neck below the more elongated capsule. 

 On a plant collected by Bruch in Oberhessen, however, the seta seems quite 

 straight and a little longer than in the other plants examined, while the cap- 

 sule is as in Reinsch's plant. This Eastern United States plant thus seems 

 to be connected with the South German by the Swedish plants. A close 

 scrutiny of the descriptions in the European manuals as well as of the availa- 

 ble herbarium material suggests the possibility that two forms of this species 

 exist, one with more elongated capsule and straight seta, the other with 

 hemispherical capsule and bent seta. Boulay in "Muscinees de la France, p. 

 537, when he says "capsule nearly as in S. calcarea,'^ has the first form in 



^Reproduced as Plate II of this issue slightly reduced. By permission. 



