The province of Alberta is situated in northwestern North America between latitudes 49° and 60° N and longitudes 110° and 120° W. It is 1,200 km (756 miles) from north to south and varies from 291 to 646 km – average 551 (182–404 miles, average 326) – from east to west, and covers an area of 661,185 km²(255,285 sq. miles).

The southern half of Alberta has an altitude of 600–900 metres (2,000–3,000 ft) in the east, gradually rising westwards to 900–1500 metres (3,000–5,000 ft) in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. The mountains, which...

Low evergreen herbs with leafy stems, more or less moss-like in aspect; spreading by prostrate stems trailing on the ground or by subterranean rootstocks; roots adventitious, from the under side of creeping stems; erect or ascending branched shoots arising usually from the creeping stems, the branching commonly dichotomous (forked); leaves, small, crowded, often overlapping, in 4–16 ranks, usually linear or lanceolate, 1-nerved; sporangia (spore-cases) solitary in the axils of sporophylls, which are like or unlike ordinary leaves and often organized in club-like spikes (strobili); spores resembling sulphur-yellow powder, shed through a transverse opening of the sporangium; prothallus (gametophyte) rarely...