Mosses of Trinidad. I. The Mosses Reported for Trinidad

Abstract

A review of the literature reveals 124 mosses which have been reported for Trinidad. Although the first collections of mosses from Trinidad apparently were made early in the nineteenth century, the various reports in the literature have never been assembled in one publication, and many collections remain to be studied and reported. This paper attempts to list, under their currently accepted names, all the mosses previously reported for the island together with references to where they were originally reported. Muller (1849, 1851) made the first substantial contribution to the mosses of Trinidad. Based on collections distributed by Sieber and the early collections made by Criiger, Muller reported 53 species. Twenty-seven of these were described as new. Toward the end of his career Muller reported 13 species of which 10 were new (Muller, 1898). These reports were based on collections by Criiger and Broadway. F. W. Sieber issued a few mosses from Trinidad in his exsiccata Cryptogamia Exotica. These were collected for Sieber by F. Wrbna in 1822 and may be the earliest moss collections made on Trinidad. In what appears to be the first record in the literature of a moss from Trinidad, Schwaegrichen (1 826) reported Macromitrium mucronifolium based on a Wrbna collection. Although various collections from the West Indies are usually attributed to Sieber, he was never there himself. He hired Wrbna and others to collect for him and subsequently distributed the plants (Dietrich, 1 881). H. Criiger (1818-1864) probably remains the most important collector of Trinidad's mosses. Criiger was an apothecary from Hamburg who moved to Trinidad in 1841. He became director of the Royal Botanic Garden in Port-of-Spain in 1857, a post which he retained until his death (Urban, 1902). Most of Criiger's collections of mosses appear to have been made in the late 1840's. W. E. Broadway was assistant superintendent of the Botanic Garden from 1888 until 1894, when he left to direct the botanical station on Grenada (Urban, 1902). Broadway's collections appear to be quite extensive, judging from the numbers seen in several herbaria, but most of them have never been reported in the literature. Aside from Muller's reports, the only references to these collections appear in monographic works, e.g., Arzeni (1954). In his monumental Musci Austro-americani, Mitten (1869) reported 74 species from Trinidad. Thirteen of these were new. Since Mitten also reported Sieber's and Criiger's mosses, he and Muller may well have reported the same 'Cryptogamic Herbarium, Missouri Botanical Garden, 2315 Tower Grove Avenue, St. Louis, Missouri 63110. ANN. MISSOURI BOT. GARD. 57: 145-151. 1970. This content downloaded from 157.55.39.104 on Sun, 19 Jun 2016 06:45:15 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms