— 59 — 
QRIMMIA OLYMPICA A NEW SPECIES. 
T. C. Frye. 
In August of 1907 a party of about forty of the Mountaineers, an organi- 
zation with headquarters in Seattle, made a three- weeks’ trip into the heart 
of the Olympic mountains. The writer was a member of this party, and 
made a point of picking up lichens and bryophytes. The Olympics form a 
roughly rounded pile of erosion peaks and ridges about sixty miles across, 
lying between Puget Sound and the Pacific Ocean. The highest point is Mt. 
Olympus, altitude 8,200 feet. The snow fall in these mountains is very 
heavy; this at their latitude makes the summer snow line only about 4,000 
feet. There are therefore a number of glaciers, of which the largest is 
Humes’ Glacier, perhaps half a mile wide and about two miles long. It is 
on the southeast side of Mt. Olympus, and is one of the sources of the Queets 
river. Toe region is not very well known, either geographically or biolog- 
ically; only a few botanists have been in the region. A lists of the plants 
secured, so far as they could be determined within a short time, was pub- 
lished in the Mountaineer , Vol. i. No. 4, 1908 ; Seattle. This plant, among 
others, was laid aside for further study. It was described and named by 
Mrs. E, G. Britton; the drawings were made by Miss Elsie K. Waddingham, 
of Seattle. 
Qrimmia Olympica E. G. Britton n. sp. 
Plants small, in dull brown or green mats in glacial mud ; stems procum- 
bent at base, erect-ascending, branching at apex, 5-8 mm. high; leaves 
spreading or slightly secund, 1-2 mm. long, without hyaline points except on 
the perichaetial leaves, point canaliculate, subulate; basal cells clear, oblong, 
upper thick ; margins incurved ; perichaetial leaves longer, with very short 
hyaline tip. Dioicous? Seta secund, 1-2 mm. long, slightly exserted beyond 
the perichaetial leaves; capsule ovoid, 0.5-1 mm. long, ribbed when dry; 
calyptra mitrate; lid short-apiculate ; annulus large, falling with the lid; 
peristome none; mouth small, bordered by several rows of brown smaller 
cells; cells of capsule walls linear, porose, thick-walled; spores smooth, pale 
yellow, .008— .010 mm., maturing in August, 
Differs from Grimmia gymnast oina Cul. Rev. Bryol. 23; 108, 1896; in 
that its capsule is exserted on a curved seta, its perichaetial leaves are with- 
out a hyaline margin and with a very short hyaline point. 
Type locality: Olympic mountains, Washington. Queets river valley, 
near Humes’ glacier. Altitude 5,500 feet. T. C. Frye No. 614, Aug. 14,1907. 
Habitat: On soil over rocks. 
The rocks were covered with silt from a glacial streamlet to the depth of 
about an inch, but in the summer time this was very dry. 
University of Washington, Seattle, Wash. 
