36 American Midland Naturalist Monograph No. 6 



middle of the leaf, or farther, and usually also fibrillose at the base of the 

 leaf, above ventrally with rather small distinct pores in the cell-angles and 

 usually other less distinct lateral pores, above dorsally with small pores in 

 cell-angles and numerously along the sides of the cells; of the usually 5 fascicu- 

 late branches two are pendent and the others short, usually 6-9 mm long, vari- 

 ously widely divergent; branch-leaves when dry very lax and widely divergent, 

 1.5-2 mm long, ovate, very concave, with involute, narrowly and uniformly 

 hyaline-bordered margins, the apex narrow and dentate-truncate; hyaline cells 

 of branch-leaves rather long and slender, richly fibrillose, dorsally with laterally- 

 placed bead-like rows of small pores about one-fifth as wide as the cell, ven- 

 trally with small ringed pores in the cell-angles, occasionally also a few laterally 

 arranged indistinct pores; cuticular cells of branches large with a short neck 

 and terminal pore; in cross-section the chlorophyllose cells narrowly elliptic 

 with about equally free and thickened faces: for the type of the species the 

 spores are stated to be yellow ,and about .030-. 03 5 mm in diameter; of the 

 variety the spores have not been seen. 



Centre Co.: Headwaters of Laurel Run, Tussey Mt., above Shingletown, July 15, 

 1909. O.E.J. Fayette Co.: In pools and wet crevices in rocky bed of river above falls, 

 Ohio Pyle, September 1-4, 1906. O.E.J, and G.K.J, (figured). 



17. Sphagnum pungens Roth 



(S. contortum var. gracile Roeil) 

 Plate IX 



Rather loosely cespitose, bluish-green, when dry sub-lustrous above, yellow- 

 ish or brownish below: stems rather stout, often forking, in our specimens up 

 to 6 or 7 cm high; wood-cylinder greenish or pale, enclosed in a one-layered 

 cuticular sheath which in places is unsymmetrically often two-layered; stem- 

 leaves broadly lingulate, about 1-1.5 mm long, at base about three-fifths as 

 wide, somewhat auriculate, the uniformly narrowly hyaline-bordered margin 

 somewhat erose-fimbriate towards the broadly rounded erose dentate apex; the 

 hyaline cells of stem-leaves broad, rarely septate, distinctly fibrillose in upper 

 two-thirds of leaf, ventrally with a few indistinct pores in the angles and along 

 the sides of the cell, dorsally with numerous small pores arranged in lateral 

 bead-like rows; of the usually 4 fasciculate branches, two are slender and ap- 

 pressed-pendent while the other two are horizontally divergent and recurved, 

 about 1-1.5 cm long, the lower and median leaves of the divergent branches 

 more or less widely squarrose, the upper ones imbricate so that the branch 

 ends in a sharply acuminate point; branch-leaves broadly ovate to lanceolate, 

 large, 1.8-2.6 mm long, concave, the uniformly narrowly hyaline-bordered 

 margins involute towards the acuminate few-toothed apex; hyaline cells of 

 branch-leaves narrow, long, richly fibrillose, ventrally with a few indistinct • 

 pores in the cell-angles, dorsally with numerous small ringed pores about one- 

 fourth to one-fifth as wide as the cell and arranged in bead like rows along 

 the sides of the cell; in cross-section the chlorophyllose cells relatively large, 

 narrowly barrel-shaped, free on both faces, the hyaline eel's not being markedly 

 convex on either face; cuticular cells of branches long-rectangular with a short 

 neck and a large apical pore: spores not known from our region. 



