— 47 — 



SELIQERIA TRISTICHOIDES IN SOUTHERN FRANCE. 



In the Bescherelle collection of European Mosses, recently purchased 

 by the University of Minnesota, are found some twelve sheets labelled 

 " Seligeria tristicha''' A hand lens inspection of these plants revealed the 

 fact that a majority of the sheets are referable probably to Seligeria iris- 

 tichoides Kindb., the capsules of which species have a characteristic shape 

 and color. Upon examining the leaves of one of the plants, the one col- 

 lected by Mr. Montague in the " Grotte de Rousseau," near Lyons,— my 

 suspicion changed to a practical conviction that these plants from southern 

 France are actually Seligeria tristicJioides! This plant, according to the 

 accompanying note, appears to have been sent to Mr. Bescherelle by 

 Montague erroneously as Trichostouiuui tophaceuin, with the remark 

 that it did not yet form a part of the French flora, and that he had found it 

 in three different localities: In the eastern Pyrenees, at Canigou ; at 

 Lyons, near the Grotte de Rousseau; and near Toulon. There are several 

 other specimens from near Lyons, all doubtless referable to Dr. Kindberg's 

 species One, without date or locality, is marked Ex herb Schimper: so 

 that Schrimper evidently saw the plant, but together with his contemporar- 

 ies confused it with S. tr is tic ha. 



Thus Seligeria tristichoides, so far reported only from northern Norway, 

 and from the N. E United States (coll. G. G. Kennedy in Vermont) under 

 the var. laxa, appears also on the French slopes of the Pyrenees, and in the 

 Cevennes Mts. It ought to occur also in the higher reaches of the Alps. 



J. M. HOLZINGER. 



(EDIPODIUM GRIFFITHIANUM (DICKS.) SCHWAEGR. 



In looking over some of the mosses from Alaska, collected by the Harri- 

 man Expedition, with Mrs. Britton. we found one rather peculiar looking 

 specimen not named by Cardot. 'I'hat he had seen it was evident by the 

 fact that pencilled on the packet was something to the effect that it con- 

 tained a Mnium in poor condition. (The packet is not accessible to me at 

 present, and I am unable to give the exact words or translation.) On inves- 

 tigation, Ihe specimen proved to be (Kdipodiiim , a rare plant first collected 

 over a hundred years ago in the British Islands. Elsewhere it has since 

 been found in only a few localities in Norway and Lapland, and by 

 Berggren in Greenland. The Alaskan specimen, a single dense tuft, was 

 found by Dr. Trelease, at Kodiak, on Kadiak Island. July 3d, 1S99, and is in 

 fruiting condition, but the capsules are all quite immature, although one or 

 two are nearly full size and when moistened, show the shape of capsule, lid 

 and its line of fission. . Gi.. Grilfithianum is the only known species of the 

 genus and is usually placed under the Splachnaceae. It may be known by 

 the large, obovate, very Mnium-like leaves and leaf-cells, and the small, 

 erect, globose capsule raised four or five lines above the leaves on a pale 

 seta-like apophysis, gradually enlarging into the sporangium. The upper- 

 most leaves are not ciliate, but below, the leaves bear on either margin near 

 base a fringe of slender hairs. 



