— 14 
COLLECTING IN ARKANSAS 
Rachel L. Lowe 
If any of my readers go to Hot Springs, Ark., a bryological treat awaits 
them there. Mosses grow everywhere: on wet and dry ground, on dry rocks 
high on the hillsides, on tree trunks, and even in the cracks of the walls along 
the city streets. My knowledge of mosses at the time I was there was exceed- 
ingly limited (still is, for that matter!) and I never strayed far from the beaten 
paths near the city, but the following list gives an idea of the possibilities of 
the region if one could wander farther afield with a fuller knowledge of what to 
seek. 
Ptychomitrium incurvum and Grimmia leucophea were common on the rocks. 
Leucodon julaceus grew in profusion on many of the hardwood trees and was 
conspicuous from the train. When wet it seems to me one of our most beautiful 
mosses. Ditrichum pallidum grew taller than it does here and attracted atten- 
tion along the roadsides. A big ledge was covered with a thrifty growth of 
Dicranum pallidum . Any interested person going up West Mountain via the 
road would not fail to see it. On that same mountain I found the face of a rock 
overrun by the tree-loving Drummondia clavellata, from which it was easily 
separated in one big lacy mat. And along the path at the foot of the mountain 
was a suspicious-looking Catharinea. I gathered quantities of it in good fruit* 
hoping that it would prove to be something rare, but Mr. Kaiser blasted my 
hopes and it was all left behind as plain angustata. Bartramia radicalis was 
collected from the sidewalks growing on a wet bank along the road to the ostrich 
farm. 
Campylopus fragilis was my best find, as Mrs. Britton says it is only the- 
third report for that species in the United States. Not only was it a rare speci- 
men, but it was growing in a very unusual habitat — on a rock in a brook, with 
the water running over it when I found it. To me at that time it was merely 
a queer Dicranum growing in a queer place, or I might have looked around for 
more of it to share with other collectors. 
If I am ever fortunate enough to be in Hot Springs again, I shall be unde- 
cided which locality to make for first: the brook where the Campylopus grew, 
or the ledge where the Clasmatodon flourished. 
Whoever reads this is probably more or less of a botanist and geologist, 
and every other kind of a naturalist, so perhaps it would not be amiss if I just 
mention the rock of which most of the ledges consist. It is novaculite, a quart- 
zitic rock of the most beautiful texture and colors; and in many places where 
road-building was in progress, were fresh fractures which drew attention and 
admiration from every passerby There were interesting breccias and con- 
glomerates, too. So take your hammer to Hot Springs as well as your vasculum. 
Yes, and your bird-glasses and any other paraphernalia, for it is a most inter- 
esting locality from whatever viewpoint a naturalist looks at it. 
