44 ROMANCE OF LOW LIFE AMONGST PLANTS. 



Peat Moss. 



The peat mosses, or bog mosses, have long been 

 recognized as possessing features which entitle them 

 to consideration apart from the frondose mosses, with 

 which they have sometimes been associated. The 

 peat mosses, known also as Sphagtmcece, by their 

 structure and habits constitute a natural and com- 

 pact group, which may well 

 ,be treated by itself, and is of 

 sufficient interest to receive 

 a brief reference in a work 

 of the present character. Dr. 

 R. Braithwaite has rightly 

 observed that " few persons 

 can have traversed our moor- 

 lands without having had 

 their attention attracted to 

 the great masses of Sphag- 

 num ;(Fig. 8) which adorn 

 their surface — now in dense 

 cushions of lively red, now 

 covering some shallow pool 

 with a vast sheet of light 

 green, inviting, it may be, 

 by its bright colour ; but woe betide the inexperienced 

 collector who sets foot thereon, for the spongy mass 

 may be many feet in depth, and he may run the 

 chance of never reaching terra firma again," ^ We 

 need not stay to inquire into the minute structure 

 and characteristics of this little group. Nor is it 



' Braithwaite, "The Sphagnacere, or Peat Mosses of Europe and 

 North America," p. 6. (i88o.) 



Fig. 8. — Squarrose Bog Moss. 



