Page:Icones muscorum.djvu/9



work was originally intended to embrace, as far as practicable, only those species of Mosses peculiar to that portion of North America lying east of the Mississippi River and south of the great lakes and the river St. Lawrence, and of which satisfactory figures had not been published.

Considerable progress had been made in the drawings and engraving, when it was ascertained that not a few species, previously regarded as natives only of Eastern North America, occurred also in Japan and on the adjacent coast of China. These species, notwithstanding, have still been here retained, together with two or three others from California, for the reason that either no figures of them, or insufficient ones, have heretofore been given.

On the other hand, it will be seen that several species, strictly confined within the proposed limits, are omitted: this is owing to the fact that of some of them excellent figures have elsewhere appeared; and of others, that specimens suitable for illustration were not at command.