Barbula oedineura Müll.Hal.

Winona, Minn., Dec. 22, 1923.

Dear Mrs. Britton:

I hope you have not yet gone South! The greetings of the season I fear would not reach you.

I am also enclosing two masses, which seem to throw some light on Dr. B. Müller's idea of the *Barbula* *obtusifolia* problem – at least the *australiana* n. sp. shows his error!

This "*Barbula oedineura*" he calls an *Hypnum*-*barbula*. So Dr. Grout was about right when he called Bartram's plant "*Barbula obtusifolia*"!  i.e., synonymous.

Now, *Bartramia* moss we proved to be *Tortula atrovirens*. And I fail to make this Australian mass anything but *Tortula atrovirens*, either! This indicates, it seems to me, that B.M. failed to recognize an old friend! – and that in two cases – the Colorado *B. obtusifolia*, and the Australian *B. oedineura*. Of course, here I am making inferences, not for publication, yet.

I suspect – To explain your and Harvard's type of *B. obtusifolia* – that B.M., after "making" their n. sp., received from Miss Bauer a moss that looks like the plant you and Harvard have! – but which Bartram and I cannot separate from *Dermatodon*. The leaves, excepting the apical cell, in *atrovirens*, look like it, but lack the extra layer of costal cells which, in *atrovirens*, makes the costa look broader above! Of course, my guess may be off. We shall see.

Sincerely, John H. Holzinger

*Barbula oedineura* B.M.
*c. Hypnum barbula* (la) n. sp.
Sandy soil, 6 feet. Jan.
Australia. 1896.

Reef & F.M. Reader. 19/4, 1896.

*Barbula oedineura* Müll.Hal.
Proc. Linn. Soc. New South Wales 27:78, 1902.

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<i>Barbula oedineura</i>
<i>Tortula atrovirens</i>

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