SPHAGNUM TERES. 45 



woody zone red. Cauline leaves precisely like those of Sphagnum 

 squarrosum. Eamiili distant, 4-5 in a fascicle, 2-3 divergent, 

 terete ; the leaves imbricated throughout, and only having the 

 apices slightly recurved ; broadly ovate, pointed, three-toothed, in 

 structure agreeing with those of S. squarrosum. Cortical cells of 

 branches in a single stratum. 



Male amentula elongated, brownish, fertile, and thickened in the 

 lower part, and beyond this extended into a slender sterile branch; 

 the bracts broadly ovato-lanceolate, pointed, agreeing in structure 

 with the branch leaves. 



Fruit seated in the coma, or in the upper fascicles ; the bracts 

 resembling those of S. squarrosum. 



Habitat : — About the edges of bogs and springs, in sub-alpine 

 districts ; sparingly distributed. In this country it has been found 

 by Mr. Wilson at Knutsford Moor, Wybunbury Bog, and New- 

 church Bog, in Cheshire ; by McKinlay at Doune ; and by Mr. 

 Stabler at Staveley, Westmoreland. 



This plant has usually been regarded as a variety of Sphagnum 

 squarrosum, and Professor Lindberg, has recently expressed to me 

 his coincitlence with this view ; structurally there is absolutely no 

 distinction between them, but in external aspect Sphagnum teres 

 closely resembles Sphagnum strictum. The beautiful and instruc- 

 tive specimens collected by Limpricht at Bunzlau, and distributed 

 xmder No. 1,153 of Eabenhorst's Bryotheca, combine the charac- 

 ters of both, the upper part having the imbricated leaves of S. teres, 

 the lower part the squarrose leaves of typical aS'. squarrosum. There 

 is thus left to us only the dioicous position of the inflorescence, 

 and the slight difference in the male amentula. 



ON DICHyE:.A EUGOSA. 

 By F. C. S. EoPER,F.L.S. 



Mr. F. C. S. Eoper has recently communicated his views on this 

 somewhat anomalous plant to the Eastbourne Natural History 

 Society, to the following effect. He says that the whole surface of 

 the patches, when viewed with a low power, are granular or mi- 

 nutely tubercular, of a dull brownish-black colour, and in some 

 cases tinged here and there with green. On making a section, it 

 is found that these granular bodies arise from below the cuticle of 

 the bark, but without any trace of mycelium penetrating the bark 

 itself, as is commonly the case with fungi ; they are of irregular 

 outline, and enclose a cavity, opening by a pore, or rather slit, at 

 the summit. This cavity is more or less filled with asci, or small 

 sac-like bodies, which contain spores, surroujided with a mass of 

 filaments called paraphyses, which are septate or jointed, and curi- 

 ously bent or hooked at the summit. The number of spores in 

 each ascus is variable, generally from two to six, thougla as the 



