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AN INTERESTING TREE. 



The maple tree of the Sound Country of Western Washington is of great 

 interest to the bryologist, because of the many species of moss which find 

 lodgment on its trunk and branches. It is more often found in the river 

 bottoms than on high land. It has a thick, corky bark, and the leaves are 

 much larger than those of the eastern maple. '\:\i\^\.xqq {Acer macro phyl- 

 Imn Pursh) is the most plentiful of our large deciduous trees and, besides 

 giving a home to the various mosses mentioned in this article, supports 

 colonies of polypodies and numerous lichens. 



The moss found in greatest profusion on the lowest part of the trunk, is 

 Claopodiicm crispifoliiivi. It grows in olive or dark green mats, the color 

 depending on the exposure to the sun. One is led astray in the determina- 

 tion of this moss by the description in the Lesquereux and James Manual, 

 where tha perichsetial leaves are put down as ecostate ; they are lightly 

 costate; see Dr. Best's notes in his revision of Claopodia. It fruits very 

 freely and the capsules are very persistent. 



Eurhyiichium Oreganum occasionally sends up long pinnses from the 

 ground; but as a rule it prefers trees with smoother bark than is that of the 

 maple, and, if it does secure a place, is easily crowded out by the 

 Claopodium. 



Next above these two, grow Cainptotheciiim lutescens^ C. Nuttallii, 

 Hyp7iiim siibimponcns, and Neckera Meiiziesii. C. hitescens is a large 

 woolly moss of a tawny yellow when dry. It fruits freely and its operculum 

 is rostrate. A specimen of this moss from Limoges, France, which was sent 

 me the other day, was growing on sand. Its habitat here is tree trunks and 

 logs. C Nuttallii \'& like gold thread when dry and no more beautiful moss 

 is found in this section. It assumes the stoloniferous form, either in the 

 centre of old growths or on the underside of small limbs. The terminal 

 leaves of the stolons present prominent booklets at the apices, from which 

 characteristic Kindberg names it haniatidens. Hypnum subimponens is 

 difficult to differentiate from an Harpidium. It fruits freely in early sum- 

 mer. The pinnae are soft and white or pale when growing on a tree trunk.. 

 When this moss grows where water drips on it. the color is a rich golden 

 copper. Neckera Menziesii prefers the tree trunk to the limbs. Its pinnae 

 hang in graiceful curves, are very regular and of a rusty brown color. The 

 immersed capsules are plentiful. I never found it in fruit at any great 

 altitude. 



Neckera Menziesii, Neckera Douglassii and Antitrichia curtipendula 

 var. gigantae, are the cushions of moss seen hanging to the trees, which are 

 so marked a feature of our landscape. Isothecium stoloniferum seldom 

 grows in as large masses. Neckera Douglassii is a soft, green moss. Its 

 leaves are sharply dentate, its branches long and irregularly pinnate. The 

 new capsules are orange and unlike those of Metiziesii have a pedicel. The 

 Antitrichia clings to the limb well out of reach. After a wind storm one 

 finds quantities of it on the ground. The flagell^, hanging below the limbs, 

 bear the capsules which are attached by a short pedicel. The furry stems- 



