NATURE STUDY [_EAFLETS

ISSUED BY THE

NATURAL SCIENCE COMMITTEE OF THE ASSOCIATE ALUMNA
OF THE NORMAL COLLEGE, NEW YORK CITY

NUMBER FOUR FEBRUARY, 1900

MOSSES.
By ELizABETH G. BRITTON.*
New York BoTanicaL GARDENS, BRONX PARK.

In a popular sense, the above name is very much misused,
and most people, even those who have some knowledge of
Botany, are apt to mistake several different kinds of plants for
the true mosses. .

The tallest and most conspicuous of these are the Zycopodiums
or Club-Mosses, also known as Ground-Pines or Christmas
greens, whose ancestors grew to be trees in the old coal-form-
ing ages of the world, and which are now used for wreaths and
garlands at Christmas-time. Closely related to these are the
Selaginellas of the green-houses and the little wild Se/aginella
apus of our fields and woods, specimens of which are often sent
to me to name as mosses. These both belong nearer the ferns
and are known as Fern allies.

The Seaweeds also are frequently called sea-mosses; and this
is the title of a popular book on the Algae, including all the
plants which grow in salt water along our sea coasts. One of
these is the Irish moss, which is used as a remedy for colds and
as an ingredient for puddings.

The Lichens are also often spoken of as mosses, and it is
probable that Longfellow referred to one of them, Usnea barbata,
which hangs from the trees in northern regions, when he wrote
of ‘‘ The murmuring pines and the hemlocks, bearded with
moss.”” The ‘‘ Reindeer moss” is also a lichen belonging to
the genus Cladonia, its specific name rangiferina being given to
it in reference to its being the food of the reindeer. The follow-
ing verses will serve to indicate some of the prettiest and
commonest of the lichens which may be found in this vicinity,
for even the Reindeer lichen grows in this region,

bf

* Copyrighted, 1900, by E. G. Britton,

‘“But in quaintness of structure, the lichens outvie
All else that in nature rejoices the eye.—
All sober in color, but varied in form,
From the Graphis, whose tracings the tree-trunks adorn,
As with Arabic writing, or outlines of maps,
To the ugly rock-tripe that on yonder cliff flaps.
From old branches the pendent gray Usnea sways,
While upon them the graceful Parmelia displays
Its parterres with curved paths, which the pixies might tread,
And gay little seed-beds, brown, orange, and red.
And here, on this knoll, which the wind has swept clean,
The Cladonia’s whimsical structures are seen.
One resembles a balconied minaret tall,
Or a ruined old castle, just ready to fall;
And another seems most, with its fame-colored tip,
Like a beacon-fire such as the old Normans lit.
And those that like delicate corals appear
Are the favorite food of the arctic reindeer.”

But even after the name is restricted to its scientific sense,
the mosses include two tribes of closely allied plants, the true
mosses and the liverworts, or scale-mosses. Few students of
botany even, know any of the liverworts by name or by sight,
though descriptions and illustrations of them may be found in
two editions of Gray’s Manual, and they grow commonly in
this vicinity in similar localities to those where the true mosses
grow. Such, for instance, is the showy J/archantia, which has
been found in grassy, shady places in old gardens, and under
bushes along streams in several places in the boroughs of the
Bronx and Richmond, and thrives in my garden in Bedford
Park.

Even in the borough of Manhattan, it is not unusual to those
who know them, to see mosses growing in the crevices of the
city pavements, at the base of old walls, and in the cracks
where the mortar is crumbling. The stair-cases of Morning-
side Park, yielded several species last spring, and the rocks in
West rroth street, five or six others, beside a species of fern. In
Bronx Park over seventy species have been collected and listed
for the Herbarium of the Museum, and it is probable that a like
number could be found in Van Courtland and Pelham Parks,
or in Prospect Park, if they were as carefully searched and the
permission could be obtained to do so. In the Borough of
Richmond, there is even a still greater variety, and on the
Palisades above Fort Lee one of the largest local collections
ever made in this region was gathered by C. F. Austin, and is
now in the possession of the Herbarium of Columbia University.

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LIBRARY
THE NEW YORK BOTANICAL GARDEN
BRONX, NEW YORK 10458

It requires much time and study to know the mosses well
and be able to distinguish the different species and varieties,
but it is easy to learn the names and to be able to recognize
about fifty species which are common within the present city
limits, without the aid of the microscope or even without a
hand lens, though this assistance will add greatly to the surety
and exactness of the recognition.

In trying to make the acquaintance of the mosses, as in any
other study, care and attention to detail is necessary. It is
best to carry either a note-book or some papers along for
wrapping the specimens as they are found, and at the time
they are gathered note the habit of growth, whether on trees,
rocks, or on the ground, whether in wet or dry places, and to
notice their color; also if they are erect, or creeping, climbing
up trees, or hanging down from rocks, or even floating in the
water. Note also whether they are in fruit or sterile, and keep
a record with each specimen of the place where it grew and the
time when it was gathered. It is well also to record whether
the season be early or late, wet or dry, as the weather has
much to do with the development of these plants.

Mosses have stems and leaves, and they also have organs of
reproduction, which correspond to the anthers and pistils of
higher plants, known as the antheridia and archegonia. The
antheridia contain the motile antherozoids, the fertilizing proto-
plasmic bodies which make their way down the neck of the
archegonium to the egg-cell, which lies in the same position
relatively, that the ovules occupy in the ovary of flowering
plants. As soon as this takes place, and it usually happens in
summer or fall, during a wet, rainy season, growth begins in
the egg-cells, they divide and expand, the walls increase in cir-
cumference, and finally are torn away at the base being carried
upward on the lengthening pedicel, to become the cap or pro-
tecting calyptra, which remains on while the capsule or spore-
case is maturing its spores. It frequently remains on all winter
and falls off in the spring-time when the spores are ripe. As
soon as they are ripe, the lid also falls away, and the fringe of
teeth surrounding the mouth spread out, forming one of the
loveliest objects under the microscope, or even to be readily
seen with a hand lens. The only comparison that is adequate
is the fringe of tentacles around the mouth of a sea-anemone;
lovely, bright, spreading, stars of red, orange and yellow,
numbering always some multiple of four.

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D)

““What tree or what herb, be it ever so fair,
Can in exquisite grace with the mosses compare ?
The feathery Hypnuins rich tapestries spread,
And many-hued mats, soft as down to the tread.
Wide o’er cold bogs spreads the pallid peat moss;
Fontinalis’ green tresses the mountain-streams toss;
The emerald Bryum on moist shady banks
Unfolds its rosettes, and here, too, in close ranks,
The troops of Dicranum are tilting their lances,
And the Liliput fruit of Bartramia dances
In each passing breeze; all these tiny green spheres
Are caskets of moss-seed, mere dust it appears,
But all vital with life, but as yet it is hid
By a cunningly fitted, and bossed little lid;
While above this a veil, too transparent to hide,
Rests lightly, as over the head of a bride.”— 4. H. Curtiss.

‘“The feathery ypnums’’ cover the tops of the rocks in the
hemlock grove in Bronx Park, and grow on many an old stump
and log in the woods, where we love to wander when spring-
flowers tempt us out on long walks. Many of them are like
worsted or chenille, their leaves are so small and lie so close
along the stem. Others are like miniature evergreens and re-
semble most the tall spires of the balsams and spruces as they
tower above the forests of the Catskills and Adirondack moun-
tains. One is known as 7huidium, the Little Cedar, and the
name //ypnum is derived from the same root word as A/ypnotism,
meaning sleep.

The pallid peat-moss is not common in this region, because
we have very few ‘‘cold bogs.” But three species are found
occasionally in wet ditches and swamps where the alders grow,
Sphagnum acutifolium, the sharp-leaved peat-moss, Sphagnum
squarrosum, the spreading-leaved peat-moss, and Sphagnum cym-
bifolium, the boat-leaved peat-moss. Specimens for the class-
room may be had from the florists, who use them for packing,
or even from the dealers in hay and feed, who sell what they
call ‘‘ peet moss,” a sign familiar at one of the stations to all
who travel on the line of the Harlem Railroad. It is used for
bedding in stables on account of its ability to absorb many
time its weight in water, a property due to the fact that its cells
are full of holes or pores like a sponge, and the water replaces
the air they contain very rapidly.

We have not yet come te using (peat “for fuel asuthe
peasants do in Ireland and other parts of Europe, but if settlers
in virgin forests continue to burn standing forests, as they clear
the ground, and the wanton destruction of our woods goes on
unchecked, we shall soon be using it or some other substitute,

ce

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and the Government will be forced to plant trees in plantations
as has been done in Germany and France. No better use can
be made of Arbor Day, in the schools, than to instill the love
of trees in the children, and the desire to preserve what few
forest areas remain, within our state, intact.

‘* Fontinalis’ green tresses, the mountain streams toss.” We
do not need to go to the mountains to find Fontinalis. The
teachers in the High School can guide you to where you will
find it in the vicinity of the city, not many miles away from
Woodlawn, the city of the dead. Its long, dark-green, tresses
float in the cold waters of ‘‘ Dog Brook” and many of them are
over a foot long. Its leaves are in three ranks, and boat-shaped,
or shell-shaped, and they have no vein. It rarely fruits, how-
ever, in this region, and I have only once found it fruiting in
the mountains of northern New Jersey. It also is common in
streams on the Palisades.

‘“The emerald A4ryum on moist shady banks unfolds its
rosettes.”’ Yes, but there are ruby Bryums, silvery Bryums,
and golden Bryums. A4ryum argenteum, the silvery Bryum, is
the commonest of them all, and I have seen it many a time in
the crevices of the side-walk on Fourth Avenue, near Fiftieth
Street, along the side of the walk from the Railroad in Bedford
Park, in the copings and stair-cases of Morningside Park, and
have had it sent to me from the summits of the Andes, and
from a door-mat in the classical town of Cambridge, Massachu-
setts. The tips of its leaves are without chlorophyll and end ina
fine bristle, and the whole plant derives its grey-green, silvery
tint from these characters. Its fruit is a jewel-box of the love-
liest description, all frosted and resplendent, with red, orange,
and gold, and the fringe of teeth around its mouth is a very
beautiful and complicated object under the microscope. Speci-
mens may be found in fruit in waste, sandy places, and newly
turned earth along the Mosholu Parkway, and duplicates will
be sent in quantity for the next distribution by the New York
Botanical Gardens, or may be had from me by sending a self-
addressed and stamped envelope.

The pedicels of many of the Bryums are a bright, glossy red,
and the leaves in many of them, especially at the base and
along the vein, are also red. There are about twenty-five
species of the genus in the Eastern states, but only about five
are common in the vicinity of New York.

‘“The troops of Dicranums are tilting their lances.” Those
lances are the capsules with their long-beaked lids and sharp-

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pointed caps or calyptras, which are tilted on one side and all
point in one direction. As the Dicranums are all gregarious and
grow in colonies or cushions, on the ground or on old decaying
logs, and even on rocks, they make showy, dark-green or glossy
yellow-green mats. They are often gathered to fill in the
windows of fish stores and florists, and may be seen in many of
the better shops of Manhattan. Diécranum scopartum, the
‘* Broom-Moss,”’ not only tilts all its capsules one way, but also
bends its leaves all in one direction like the bristles of a hair-
broom, whence its specific name, scopartum. It grows on the
ground in Bronx Park, in wet woods, and also in various other
places in the Borough of the Bronx. Dicranum fulvum covers
with dark-green, velvety sheets the rocks in the Hemlock
Grove, but never has been known to fruit there, and D. montanum
has also been found there, but is rare. Dicranum flagellare,
‘so-named because the young branches start out like bundles of
whips, grows on old, decaying logs in swampy woods, and is
wonderfully glossy and dark-green in color. About six species
in all are known to grow in the limits of the city. Dzécranella
heteromalla, a first cousin to the Dicranums, is abundant at the
base of trees on lawns, along roadsides and in woods, and, as its
name implies, is a diminutive image of the Fork-Mosses. This
name is given them because the teeth which surround the mouth
of the capsule are all bifid or forked. Another relative of the
Dicranums is the White-Moss, Leucobryum glaucum, a tautological
name, emphasizing its pale-green color. Its leaves, like those
of the Peat-Mosses, are composed of cells having very large
air spaces, and little chlorophyll or leaf-green, so that the
whole moss is light in color. It grows in similar places in
woods, often with the Broom-Moss, and occasionally forms
large domes, like bee-hives, at the base of trees in swamps. It
is white only when dry. If saturated with moisture, as it often
is in winter, the color is a pale-green.

Bartramia, the Apple-Moss, was named for John Bartram, of
Philadelphia, who corresponded with Linnzeus, and had one
of the earliest botanical gardens in this country. His old
home and garden, now within the limits of the City of
Philadelphia, has been preserved as a public park. Sartramtia
pomiformis, is not a common moss in this region, though it does
grow in a few places in Bronx Park. It loves shady rocks and
rich leaf-mould, and its bright green curly leaves are a pretty
setting for the round brown capsules, which suggest an apple
in shape.

The Hair-cap Mosses, Polytrichum and Pogonatum, are the
tallest of the mosses and they have the most highly developed,
woody stems. Polytrichum commune, whose hairy caps always
remind me of the one Robinson Crusoe made of goat-skin, and
Polytrichum Ohioense, are common in Bronx Park, and also in
old fields and grassy meadows elsewhere. Beneath the hairy
cap, the lid suggests a ‘‘tam-o-shanter,” and still better to
protect the spores, there is a tightly fitted drum-head, dove-
tailed on to the tips of the teeth. Its leaves, too, are specially
fitted for protection against dryness and freezing, as they roll
in their edges, making a tubular cavity, as the Ahododendrons do
with their leaves in winter and in drought. On _ freshly
broken soil along roadsides, the Goats-beard Moss grows,
Pogonatum tenue,; it, too, has a hairy cap, and is first cousin to
the Polytrichums, having a similar protection for its spores. It
always forms a bright-green felt of protonema, or fine green
threads, covering the ground with a delicate billiard-cloth,
until the plants are ready to grow. In this way it holds the
crumbling earthy banks together, and comes off in sheets when
gathered. To this family also, though wearing a plainer cap,
with a few short hairs, belongs the moss dedicated to the
Empress Catharine of Russia, Catharinea angustata, which is
also found commonly fruiting in winter at the base of trees, in
open places along roadsides and in woods. On old stone walls,
the bright-red rosettes of its antheridial heads, may be found
even in winter-time, and I have gathered them on the, rocks of
rroth Street and Amsterdam Avenue. This moss also protects
its leaves from drying and frost, by curling them up, and has
gills on the upper side of the leaf along the vein, as do the
Hair-cap Mosses. But the capsules are perfectly smooth and
cylindric, instead of being angled, or cubical as in Polytrichum
COMMUNE. .

All over the rocks, where the water has settled and staid
during the winter, there will be seen in February and March
very brilliant, bright-green cushions of the ‘‘ Horn-toothed
Moss,” Ceratodon purpureus. Its pedicels as they grow upward
are a bright wine-red, and very numerous, and each becomes
tipped by a ribbed and bent capsule, which is also purple.
Around its mouth, may be seen with a lens, the curiously
divided teeth, thickened at the joints and resembling so much
the horns of an Antelope or Chamois, that they have given the
name of ‘‘horned-toothed”’ to the genus. This moss was
abundant last winter in vacant lots opposite St. Luke’s

7

Hospital, and may be found on every rock-ledge, growing with
the hoary-leaved Hedwigia albicans, in Bronx Park.

In the crumbling mortar of old walls and foundations, on the
corner of Lexington Avenue and Fiftieth Street, on various
ruins and deserted houses in the Borough of the Bronx, the
Cord-Moss, Funaria hygrometrica, may be found, readily known
by the way the pedicels of the capsules twist around each other
when dry, so that it is impossible to separate them without
decapitating them. The French call it ‘‘La Charbonniere,”’ in
reference to its well-known preference for growing on charred
wood, and it might also well be called Cinderella, for it loves
ashes. The Top-Moss is its first cousin, and be found in the
spring-time, with numerous top-shaped capsules, in old flower-
beds and along ditches, and in wet fields. Its name is
Physcomitrium turbinatum, in reference to the shape of its capsules.

It is not unusual to find also on old walls and in crumbling
mortar, the Wall-Moss, TZortula muralis, and even on the
ground, where old houses have stood, it grows abundantly in
Bronx Park. It leaves are a very bright-green, and rough with
fine papillae, like the surface of the tongue, and each tipped
with a long, slender bristle. Its teeth are curiously twisted,
hence its generic name, Zortu/a, and it belongs to the same
family as the Red-bearded Mosses, the 4arbulas, some of which
also grow in waste places and on old walls. It is also found
associated with the bright-green cushions of the tiny Wersta
virtdula, the green moss; its leaves are such a bright, joyful
green. They all fruit in winter or very early spring,‘and fruit
abundantly, so that the capsules stand up all over the tufts,
like bristling porcupine quills.

The ‘‘ Brownies’ of the moss world are everywhere, but few
people know them or see them. In my own garden, under the
shade of the grasses on the lawn, they fruited last fall; and in
all the muddy, grassy fields around the museum in Bronx
Park, they may be found. Under the alders in the bog-
garden, the smallest of them all and the shortest-lived one,
Ephemerum spinulosum, was found, full of tiny globose, orange
capsules. In fact, nature has compensated them for their
small size and ephemeral lives by giving them a sure means of
reproduction, large, horny, warty spores, almost the largest
known in any of the mosses. To that class belong the
Pleuridiums, the Astomums, the Bruchias, and the Wanomitriums,
one of which enjoys the honor of only having been found once
by C. F. Austin, who deserved to be called ‘‘sharp-eyed.”

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LQ

232 7953

The whole plant is not as large as the smallest letters used in
printing, and he must have crawled on his hands and knees to
see it! They all grow on the ground in damp places, and live
through the winter till the muddy fields dry up. There are
about twenty different kinds of Moss-Brownies and each is as
different from the other, and as much an entity in miniature,
as Palmer Cox ever evolved from his fertile brain and pen.

Closely related to the Aryums, but with larger leaves and
often bearing long, creeping runners, on which the leaves are
two-ranked, are the Waiums, filling in the crevices among the
roots of grass, under the shade of trees on lawns and roadside
banks, leaning over the side of the river and growing around
the roots of trees in wet woods. Mnium cuspidatum, may be
found fruiting in April or May, and is one of the prettiest as
well as the commonest of the genus, having been collected in
almost every State and Territory in the United States. Mnium
hornum and Mnium punctatum also grow in Bronx Park, but
none of them have any common names, though one might
readily be coined for them, the Starry Mosses, because they
have been called Astrophyllum, in reference to the rosettes of
leaves which surround the clusters of reproductive organs.
These are quite conspicuous in some of the species, giving a
dark eye to the rosette, like the Composites. Fifteen species
occur in the Eastern States, five having entire leaves, five with
single teeth on the edges of the leaves, and five with the teeth
double or in pairs.

Another one of the Split-toothed Mosses is /7sstdens. Three
species grow in Bronx Park, fruiting in fall and winter,
Fissidens minutulus, the small split-toothed moss, /. adiantoides,
the maiden-hair split-toothed moss, and F/. taxifolius, the yew-
leaved split-toothed moss. All have their leaves in two flat
rows, overlapping each other closely, and all fruit abundantly
in wet woods and on stones along ditches and streams. They
also have a lovely red, starry fringe around the mouth of the
capsule, like the sea-anemones.

There area large number of creeping, side-fruited mosses allied
to the Hypnums which are are too difficult for the beginner to
recognize. The commonest are the Anomodons, Thelias, Entodons
and Leskeas, but the Little-ladder Moss, Cl:macium Americanum,
anyone can know, as its tree-like stems may be seen in wet
woods and swamps, on rocks along streams, and it fruits in the
Boroughs of Richmond and the Bronx in the fall, and the
capsules stay on all winter. Its teeth are like little ladders.

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