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MUSCI AND HEPATICAE OF WASHINGTON, D. C., AND VICINITY. 
John M. Holzinger. 
It was the writer's fortune to work for three years, from 1891 to 1893, 
in the Agricultural Department at our national capital, as an assistant 
botanist. During that time I spent most of my leisure hours in exploring 
the vicinity of Washington for mosses, and, incidentally also for Hepaticae. 
The determination of the Hepaticae was entrusted entirely to Dr. A. W. 
Evans. The mosses I tried to work out myself, but, being a novice, I 
encountered many difficulties, so I sent my determinations and doubtful 
materials to my friend Mr. Jules Cardot, who has thus seen and corrected 
practically all the species recorded below. Besides, in the fifteen years that 
have elapsed, special students have studied the material collected by me; 
Mr. Cheney, the genus Amblystegium: Dr. Best, Leskea and Thuidium; Dr. 
Grout, Eurhynchium and Brachythecium: Mrs. Britton, Sematophyllum, 
Orthotrichum, etc. So that now, as a matter of fact, I can claim only the 
collecting and final recording of most species, for future reference. 
During my study in Washington I endeavored, naturally, to make use of 
previous work of moss students. Only two persons seemed then to have 
worked on mosses, and to have left a record: the first was Mr. Rudolph Old- 
berg, a young druggist, a Scandinavian: the other, a Rev. E. Lehnert. Mr. 
Oldberg’s work was recorded in “The Guide to the Flora of Washington,” 
published by Prof. F. L. Ward as Bulletin No. 26 of the U. S. National 
Museum, in 1881. In this Guide ninety-eight Musci and twenty-nine 
Hepaticae are listed. Mr. Lehnert’s work is recorded in Prof. B. F. Knowl- 
ton’s “ Additions to the Flora of Washington and Vicinity, from April 1, 1884, 
to April 1, 1886,” published in the proceedings of the Biological Society of 
Washington, Vol. Ill, 1884-1886. Here one hundred and seventy-nine 
Musci and fifty-seven Hepaticae are listed. This second list is called a 
“ revision,” “ so kindly placed ” at Prof. Knowlton’s disposal by Mr. Lehnert, 
and the author proudly points out that Mr. Oldberg’s list is here augmented 
“ by the addition of one hundred and eleven species, of which eighty-three 
are Frondosi and twenty-eight Hepaticae, making a total of two hundred 
and thirty-eight species.” 
Naturally I made use also of the collection of mosses in the National 
Herbarium, for purposes of comparison. So generally did I miss here the 
species recorded in the two lists named above that I made a systematic com- 
parison between these lists and the species actually represented. After thus 
looking for the first forty-five species listed in Mr. Lehnert’s “Revision” I 
confess I lost patience; for in this number I found only twelve of Mr. Old- 
berg’s collection and none at all of Mr. Lehnert’s. I then searched for Mr. 
Oldberg himself, and found he had died some years before. Mr. Lehnert, how- 
ever, was alive, over in Philadelphia. With him I had some correspondence, 
without definite result: for he could never furnish me material of species he 
had reported. My friend Knowlton doubtless was serious — he was a serious 
man— when he published “ Additions from April 1, 1884, to April 1, 1886; ” as 
regards this revision of the District mosses, it proved to be a real April first 
