150 



GEOLOGY OF LA SALLE COUNTY. 



MUSCI AND HEPALIC^, MOSSES AND 

 LIVERWORTS, 



Mosses and Liverworts are small plants, many of 

 them growing- on trees, log-s, rocks, etc., and g-enerally 

 in damp and rather dark places. The mosses ^row by 

 the extension of the stem like a tree or other plant, and 

 have well defined leaves, flowers often of two kinds, 

 one a little rosette of minute g-reenish red leaves at the 

 top of a leafy stem, usually short, the other looking- 

 line a small g-reen seed at the end of a slender leafless 

 stem. This seed, like a vessel, in time opens by the 

 outer end dropping- oif and the seed or spores, minute 

 dust like bodies, drop out. We have spoken of flowers, 

 but the org-ans w^e have mentioned have no resemblance 

 to a flower, nor does the microscope reveal any org-ans 

 like those of a flower. The mosses differ much in 

 form of leaves, color, size and shape of seed vessel or 

 capsule, and on these differences the g-enera and species 

 are founded. 



We have identified the following- species: 



I. Sphag-num cymbefolium, erect, 4-6-inch, leafy, 

 leaves soft, whitish fruit on slender, rather short 

 pedicels at ends of stems. Wet places forming- a 

 dense mat. 



14. Bastramia pomiformis, small, erect, one- 

 fourth inch in dense clumps, pedicels reddish, one inch, 

 fruit globular. Ground in hedges and along fences. 



17. Climacium Americanum, erect, 4-6-inch, some 

 branched, leafy at top, greenish brown. Wet woods. 

 Looks like a little tree. Our largest moss. 



II. Poh^trichium commune. In dense mats, 

 stems one inch, leaves long, one-fourth inch, acute, 



