46 P: Hope Street 
Providence, K.I 
Hov 15, 1911 
My dear Mrs. Dunham 
The Polytrichurc came this mo mine- and your 
second letter this afternoon. I am sorry that the hey to the 
Maine "olytricha was so condensed as to cut out some of my remarks 
at the Portland meeting preliminary to presenting the "Key”. 
The hey was intended for use only with the more common species 
of Polytrichum, and in the lecture I distinctly stated that 
several little understood or rare forms had been omitted, in 
other words only the common or well/understooa species were 
included. 
The moss that you send looks almost exactly like one I 
collected at Cutler, Me. in 1902, except that the lower part of 
the stem in the Cutler plant is densly tomentose, as in ?• 
etrictum . I have ±ax also collected almost the same thing in 
Gaspfe, and I have nearly the same thing, except for strongly 
squarrose leaves, from "both Maine and Gaspfe- I don't know 
just what to say in regard to the plants. They are certainly not 
straight 2* commune . Apparently they are much nearer P. Swartsii . 
or P. inconstana perhaps. In my own herbarium I have placed them 
along with ?. Swar tsii collected ty Haraid lindherg in Finland, 
which they eolsely resemble superficially. Very recently I have 
written to Germany for some pamphlets bearing on this matter, 
I hope when they come, if I am able to get them, they will throw 
some light on the matter. In the meantime I should not care to 
be quoted as saying they were either Swart % 1i or inconstans . 
The Saugus specimen when it reached^ me this morhing 
