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go and get it, and practically the only expense involved is the 

 cost of collecting and transporting the material. As will be seen 

 later, the process of preparing the sphagnum for use is very simple, 

 and most of the work can be done by volunteer workers. 



What does the sphagnum look like? How can you recognize it 

 when you see it? 



To begin with, the sphagnum is a sort of moss. But do not 

 confuse the true mosses with the so-called "sea mosses." These 

 are more correctly called sea-weeds: they are not mosses at all. 

 The true mosses are comparatively small, leafy plants, seldom 

 more than a few inches in height. They grow in all sorts of 

 places: in dry, exposed crevices of rocks, on the bark of trees, on 

 the ground in swamps and moist woods, and even in the water. 

 But they never grow in salt water. To an ordinary observer, 

 perhaps, the mosses are conspicuous chiefly on account of the 

 great masses of vegetation which they commonly form. The 

 sphagnums include some of our largest and most conspicuous 

 mosses. 



The sphagnum differs from other kinds of moss in a number of 

 important respects. 



First of all, a sphagnum plant seldom exhibits the deep leaf- 

 green color of an ordinary moss. When wet, it commonly is a 

 pale green; when dry, it may be almost white. Very frequently 

 the green is hidden almost completely by pigments of various 

 colors, so that the plants may be almost any shade from bright 

 red and pink to russet green and dark brown or almost black. 

 These colors form a very distinctive feature of many sphagnums 

 when they are fresh. In nature, their mass effect is very striking, 

 and they are of great help when it comes to recognizing material in 

 the field. 



But color alone is hardly a sufficient test. Other distinguishing 

 marks are afforded by the peculiarities of the branches and of the 

 leaves. If you examine a single sphagnum plant, you will see, 

 first of all, that it consists of a main axis, on which are borne 

 numerous short branches. Further, you will note that these 

 branches are not borne singly, but in clusters of from three to 

 six. No other moss produces its branches In clusters, after the 



