Page:The Living Flora of West Virginia and The Fossil Flora of West Virginia.pdf/42

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t8 the west Virginia I'Lora

dentalis, and several species of Pinus, as well as a few scant growths of Taxus Minor.

Among the sedges the principal item of interest is the re- discovery in Fayette County of what was doubtless the original type station of Carex Fraseri, And.

Of the Equisetaccae the most notable form so far found is E. laevigatum, Braun., gathered in the southernmost part of the State thus extending its distribution southeastward.

Of the Filices, the rarer forms found with us are : Polypodium polypodioides; Pellaea atropurpurea in great quantities in the southern section; Asplenium pinnatifidum, montanum (plentiful) and angustifolium; Dryoptcris Goldieana, and marginalis Cystopteris bulbifera; Dicksonia punctilobula; and strange to say on the summit of Spruce Knob at an altitude of 4,800 ft. Dryopteris fragrans, in such great quantity that it is cut and stacked for fodder, this species being greatly relished by cattle.

Lycopodium lucidulum, L., annotinum, L., obscurum'' and its var. dendroideum, L., clavatum, and L. complanatum are all found in the forests of black spruce along the Alleghanies.

In the mosses, hepatics, and lichens, but little collecting has so far been done, no systemic searches having been made for specimens in these classes of plants. In the search for hepatics incidental to other exploration, in Mercer County, the dry bald face of a large limestone cave yielded a new species in Plagiochila Virginica Evans, as well as a rarity in the eastern flora of the United States, Radula Xalapensis, Mont. Among the mosses we have been rewarded in our itinerant work by finding two new forms Dicranodontium Virginicus, Britt. m. and D. Millspaughi Britt. m., as well as numerous noteworthy species.

Beside these unique forms, we report many species from our region that have not been before credited to the flora of North America, include many hitherto unpublished asci and spore measurements of species otherwise well described, and have transferred many not before well understood.

The host plants have proven also to be of special interest in that many of them yield certain species for the first time in the mycologic literature of this country, and many others pose as altogether new to Host Indices.