Moss Specimens Research Articles

Display Pocket for Cryptogams

While the ordinary opaque pockets commonly used for holding herbarium specimens of mosses, lichens, etc. serve the purpose fairly well, there is need for a pocket that will expose some specimens to view more quickly than the regular kind. Unless the specimen can be mounted onto the sheet without a cover, as is usual with vascular plants, it will be necessary to place it into some transparent pocket, if it is to be easily and quickly seen. The idea is not at all new and some herbaria are using transparent materials in one way or another. It is not necessary that all collections be exposed to view, but it is highly desirable that one collection of each entity be readily visible. This is a big time-saver when one is attempting to match a specimen in hand. It also saves much wear and tear on the opaque pockets, for fewer of them need to be opened. The transparent pocket should be just as much a part of the herbarium as an opaque pocket and both types should be filed together. Further, the collection thus displayed should also be a regular herbarium specimen and easily removed for study when necessary. The pocket here described has been used by me for several years and has proved to be quite satisfactory. The size of the completed pocket, 5 X 712 inches, has been chosen so that four such pockets may fit very nicely on a standard 1112 X 1612 inch herbarium sheet and still be easily opened.* When but one such pocket is desired on a sheet, the space left is sufficient for the common 312 X 5 inch pockets, without wasting space. The paper chosen may be the usual paper used for herbarium pockets. It should be a firm, unglazed paper lacking the chemicals that cause paper to crack and tear when folded. The size needed for one pocket is 612 X 1912 inches. This paper will normally be purchased in the 17 X 22 inch size. Each sheet makes two pockets. The unused strips along the side and end need not be wasted, but can be used for making small pockets for seeds, etc. of vascular plants. Attempts to utilize the paper more efficiently will result in pockets too wide for convenience on herbarium sheets or too narrow for most labels. The 612 X 1913 inch piece of paper is first folded 712 inches from one end and then folded again at the free end of this 712 inch

The Moss in the Crevice

From time to time I receive letters from members to whom I send specimens of mosses, asking for information regarding data on envelopes reading: Habitat, rocks, west hill, or Limestone crevice, west hill, Owen sound, Ontario. In the following sketch I will endeavor to tell something of this station: Great fissures have their beginning at the edge of the cliffs facing the city of Owen Sound, looking east, and run due west for a distance of from one-quarter to three-quarters of a mile. In depth they are from fifteen to thirty-five feet, and the average width is two-and-a-half feet. The perpendicular walls are smooth with the exception of occasional ledges projecting out not more than six inches. At the base of the cliffs facing the city where considerable quarrying is done, I found a fossil specimen in an excellent state of preservation and resembling in appearance a species of Anomodon. And now, if the reader will, in fancy, accompany me on this August afternoon, I will mention such plants as I find while exploring this station. Starting from the east end of the fissures where a slight deposit of soil has gathered, shrubby, half-starved aspens grope for a precarious living; silverywhite lichens and Grimmia apocarpa, in contrasting colors, are dotted on the flat surface of the rocks; crisped, curled cushions of Tortella tortuosa are scattered about while in the partial shade of the aspens, Hedwigia albicans wanders at will over the limestone boulders. As I wander westward, the vegetation is more frequent and the edge of the crevice is quite moist, so I find hanging over the walls Aulacomnium androgynum, Anomodon viticulosus, and great, fruited, loose cushions of Bartramia pomiformis. Just under these I find Didymodon rubellus and Myurella Careyana, always hopelessly mixed. Still farther west, where cedars shade the crevice, are Hylocomium Pyrenaicum, Tortula mucronifolia, Thuidium delicatulum, and, again, Tortella tortuosa, the last named one fruited in this place. From the edge of the crevice to the sheer walls on the north, a distance of a few hundred feet, Thuidium abietinum is found at home on the rocks in the open and under the shrubs.

Sphagnum faxonii; An Addition to the Flora of New England

Since my friend the late Edwin Faxon was one of the original members of the New England Botanical Club, it seems fitting that the Sphagnum which I have recently named in his memory should be brought to the attention of his old associates by publishing in Rhodora a translation of the original description.* I wish to say, by way of preface, that Mr. Faxon, an indomitable collector of Sphagna, sent me for investigation during the nineties thousands of specimens from New England, all prepared with the most pains-taking care. To many others than myself BorealiAmericani Exsiccata, an extremely noteworthy collection of one hundred seventy-two representative specimens of American peat mosses issued by Faxon in collaboration with Professor D. C. Eaton, stands as testimonial to his persevering and accurate work as a collector. Faxon was preeminently lovable, unselfish and modest,-such a man as I have but seldom come in contact with during my life. He translated my Contributions to the Knowledge of the North American Sphagna for publication in the Botanical Gazette.t but although I urged him to do so, he did not associate his own name with the articles. I hope that in describing the following moss I have permanently connected the name of this truly exceptional man with his favorite genus. SPHAGNUM FAXONII Warnst. Forming closely compacted tufts as much as 12 cm. deep, below grayish brown, above pale yellowish, in habit similar to a weak Spk. cuspidatum var. f/lumosum. Cortex of two or three layers of cells, plainly differentiated from the strong, pale or yellowish woody axis. Prosenchyma cells widened and thick-walled. Stem leaves (both dry and moist) spreading, isosceles-triangular or in part almost triangular-linguiform, o.75-1.oo mm. long and 0.5o-0.60 mm. broad, at the narrow truncate apex minutely denticulate, otherwise entire, with broad margins which are greatly expanded below the middle. Hyaline cells either not at all or only occasionally septate, fibrillose in the upper third or even to the middle of the leaf, on the inner surface mostly with a few unringed pores between the fibrils, on the outer surface, toward the apex, with a few small corner-pores. Fascicles moderately crowded, generally threebut occasionally four-branched. Branches almost equally strong and spreading, up to 12 mm. in length,

Mounting Moss Specimens

Mounting Moss Specimens

Mounting Moss Specimens

Mounting Moss Specimens