u H \ 468 Hope street, 
Providence, P. I. 
£4'Jan. 1911 
My dear Mrs. Dunham 
I think it would he a rood idea for you to put 
a notejin the Bryolopist about your moss. As a result of a re-exami¬ 
nation of your specimens I think it might ho better to quote- (without 
date, perhaps) from what follows in single spaced type (the whole 
ve rbati m if you wish) rather^ than from my letter of 17 June, 1910. 
If you will compare the two letters however you will find' that the two 
are essentially similar, but what follows is in better form, I think, 
and but slightly different from my former communication, plus some 
additions. -'Up. 
Judging from a comparison with 2. M. Hoisinger's Musci Aerocarpi 
Boreali-American! Ho. 50 which was distributed as "Part of type" 
(of Polytrichum SmithiaeJ, and from the description and figures of 
that species given by A. /j. Grout in The Pryologist (vol. 6, p.41, 
May, 1903 ), I should" say<) that your Ho. 807 was pretty good P. Smithiae 
in its sporophytic characters, but depauperate ?. Ohloensc in its 
game to phytic'*’ characters. Your specimens appear to differ from 
?. Smithiae principally is (l) in lacking the slender stems with 
colsely acaressed leaves (see fig. 10, plate viii , l.c.) which so 
strongly suggest ?. stricture, (2) in having 38 to 40 lamellae instead 
of about 32, (3) in leaves reaching a length of 6.5 ram. (excluding 
the sheath), widely spreading or slightly recurved when moist, loosely 
appredsed and with spreading tips when dry, much after the style of 
fig. 2, plate Viii , (1. c .O'. 1 
Eenauld and Csrdot in the Revue Bryoiogique (vol. 12, p. 12, 
1885) give the lamellae of P. Ohioense as 40 to 50, 5 to 7 cells high. 
Grout in The Bryologist (l.c.) says of P. Smithiae "lamellae about 
SXJOC 32, four to six cells high". Your specimens, so far as I have 
examined them, show 38 to 40 lamellae, five cells high. Thus in the 
number lamellae, as well as in other characters mentioned above, your 
specimens come nearer to P. Ohioense than to P. Smithiae. 
In measurements of length only of both sporophyte and pametophyte 
your plants fill well within the measurements given for PI Smithiae 
±x (l.c..), as may be seen from the following summary of measurements 
made from 47 of your specimens. 
Shortest gametophyte 9 mm., longest 29 mm.; of these there were 
7 between 9 and 13 mm., 22 between 14 and 10 mm., 3 between 19 and 
21 ram., 12 between 22 and 25 ram., and 3 between 26 and 29 ram. 
Shortest sporophyte 11 ram., longest 30 ram.; of these there were 
2 between 11 and 15 ram., 13 between 16 and £1 mm., 25 between 22 
ana 25 mm., and 7 between 26 and 30 mm. Capsule length, 3 from 
2.8 to 3 mm., and 44 between 3 and 4 ram. The longest deoperculate 
capsule measured a secant 4 mm. 
