40 American Midland Naturalist Monograph No. 6 



Springy places and swamps, Eurasia and North America, south to northern 

 Pennsylvania, Michigan, Minnesota, Colorado, and Washington. 



The brown color of this moss constitutes the most obvious distinction be- 

 tween it and the usually red S. Warnsiorfi. 



22. Sphagnum quinquefarium (Lindberg) Wamstorf 



{Sphagnum acutifolium var. quinquefarium Lindberg) 

 Plate VI 



Pale green or yellowish-green, reported as more or less rose-tinted above, 

 but in our region not rose-tinted so far as yet known, deeply and densely 

 cespitose: stems up to 10 cm, often forking, densely fasciculately branched, in 

 cross-section showing a yellowish or pale "wood-cylinder, the cuticular sheath 

 composed of 3 or 4 layers of large cells; stem-leaves lingulate-triangular from 

 a wide slightly auriculate base, rather large, about 1.2-1.8 mm long by about 

 three-fifths as wide, rounded above to a narrowly erose-truncate apex, the 

 margins narrowly hyaline-bordered and somewhat involute towards the apex, 

 towards the base widely bordered; hyaline cells of stem-leaves in median 

 portion and towards the apex widely rhomboid, in the upper half of the leaf 

 septate, usually faintly fibrillose and occasionally porose, in the lateral basal 

 portion septate, rapidly becoming very narrow outwards and merging there 

 into the broad hyaline border; brrnches usually 4 or 5 in a fascicle, usually 2 or 

 3 widely divergent, the comal short, dense, and widely ascending to erect; 

 branch-leaves oval to ovate, about 1.5 mm long, concave, with involute nar- 

 rowly hyaline-bordered margins, above quickly narrowed to a rather broad 

 dentate-truncate apex; hyaline cells of branch-leaves large, fibrillose, below 

 ventrally with a few small rounded pores in the cell-angles, the median lateral 

 cells with a few small rounded pores in the cell-angles, the median lateral 

 cells with a few larger indistinct pores, dorsally above with characteristic more 

 or less elliptic pores of about one-third the width of the cell and situated in the 

 cell-angles or along the sides; in cross-section the chlorophyllose cells rather 

 broadly triangular, ventrally free but dorsally enclosed between the highly con- 

 vex hyaline cells; cuticular cells of branches large, inflated, with a distinct neck 

 and apical pore: spores stated to be smooth, yellowish and about .021 -.025 mm 

 in diameter. 



In bogs, etc., in Europe and, in North America, from Newfoundland to 



New England and south along the mountains to the Carolinas. 



Rare in our region. Clinton Co.: Along Hyner's Run above Hyner, July 14, 1908. 

 O.E.J, (figured). 



23. Sphagnum plumulosum Roell 



{S. subnitens Russow and Wamstorf; S. acutifolium var. subnitens Dixon) 



Plate V 



Densely cespitose, pale to grass-green, usually reddish to violet above: 

 stem in typical specimens 10-15 cm high, but in our region usually about 6-8 

 cm high, the wood-cylinder green to red, the cuticular sheath distinct, 2-4- 

 layered, with the outer cells largest: stem-leaves large, 1-1.5 mm long, broadly 



