On Bog Mosses. 13 



ivatts of the cells. Chlorophyll cells central, enclosed by the hyaline, 

 strongly compressed. Male plants more slender, in distinct tufts, 

 the amentula short, olive green, bracts broadly ovate, acute, with 

 incurved, bordered margins. 



Fruit usually seated in the capitulum, peduncular leaves laxly 

 imbricated, elongate oblong, acuminate, fibrose and with a few pores 

 in the upper part. Spores ferruginous. 



Var. /? contort um. 



Sph. contortum Schidtz, Sup. Fl. Stargard. p. 64 (1819). Nees and Hornsch. 

 Bryol. Germ. I, p. 15, T. II, fig. 6 (1823). Bridel, Bry. Univ. I, p. 7 (1826). 

 Wilson, Bry. Brit. p. 22, PI. LX. (1855). Berkl. Handb. p. 308 (1S63). Sph. 

 subsecundum # isophyllum, Russow, Torfui. p. 73 (1865). 



Eobust, more or less immersed, ferruginous, blackish-green or 

 olive. Eamuli crowded, terete, usually twisted or circinate, more 

 densely leaved. Eamuline leaves much larger, broadly ovate, more 

 or less densely imbricated and secund, somewhat glossy, the chloro- 

 phyll cells less compressed. 



Var. 7 turgidum. 



0. Miil. Synop. I, p. 101 (1849). Sph. contortum Var. y obesum Wilson, Bry. 

 Brit. p. 22 (1855). 



Stem paler, branches swollen, cuspidate or obtuse. Branch 

 leaves large, very broad, truncate at apex, 5-toothed, with wide 

 cells, stem leaves very large, ovate, fibrose at upper part or some- 

 times throughout. 



Var. 8 auriculatum. 



Lindberg, Torfmos. in Obs. sub. No. 11 (1862). Sph. auriculatum Schimper, 

 Torf. p. 77, T. XXIV (1858). Synop. p. 687 (1860). 



Glaucous green, whitish below ; the stem pale brown, cauline 

 leaves large, Ungulate acuminate, subhastate at base, with very large 

 auricles composed of large fibrose utricular cells, perforated at the 

 free apex ; the point truncate and erose. 



Var. e gracile. 

 C. Midler, Syn. I, p. 101 (1849). 



More slender in all its parts, the lateral branches remote, some- 

 what curved ; those of the coma very dense. 



Hab. — Turf-bogs and about springs in the moorlands. j3, in 

 deep bogs. 7, in ditches and at the edges of deep pools. S, Hay- 

 ward's Heath, Sussex (Mr. Mitten), e, near Berlin, Mecklenburg 

 and the Black Forest. Fr. July. 



This most polymorphous of all the Sphagnums varies remark- 

 ably in size of leaf, habit and colour. S. subsecundum of Nees must 

 be taken as the type of the species, and this is always more slender 

 and attains a height of 12 inches or more ; of all the forms it occurs 

 in those localities where there is the least accumulation of moisture, 

 and also where they assume a more subalpine character. The 



