On Bog Mosses. 215 



fibrose hyaline cells like those of the branch leaves. Spores 

 ferruginous. 



Var. /3 confertum. 



Plants very short, in dense tufts, usually dichotomous ; outer 

 cortical cells of stem with 3-1 very large foramina, and usually 

 without fibres. Eamuline leaves, round, deeply cochleariform- 

 concave, obtuse, the apical cells less prominent at the back. 

 Peduncular bracts shorter. 



Var. 7 stenophyllum. 



Plants somewhat lurid, short, dense, robust, irregularly 

 branched. Outer cortical cells of stem rectangular, with 3-1 

 large foramina, and some very fine distant fibres. Branch leaves 

 ovate-oblong, less concave and cucullate, and almost entire above. 



Hab., peat bogs in subalpine districts. 



Scandinavia, frequent (Lindberg), Germany, Ben Lawers 

 (E. B.), near Penzance (Curnow), Sutton Park, Birmingham 

 (Bagnall), Staveley, Westmoreland (Barnes), ft. near Penzance 

 (Curnow), 7. near Penzance (Curnow), Staveley (Barnes). 



This fine species is no doubt quite as common as Sph. cymbi- 

 folium, from which it may be at once distinguished by its more 

 rigid texture, brown colour, and less elongated branches, with 

 shorter closely imbricated leaves. 



In Sph. cymbifolium the branches are much more attenuated, 

 the leaves less closely imbricated, more divergent, and more atten- 

 uated at the points. The chlorophyll cells also are nearer to the 

 concave surface than to the back of the leaf, and at their point of 

 union with the hyaline the internal surface is quite smooth; the 

 texture of the plant is also remarkably soft. It will be seen that 

 the two varieties of Sph. papillosum are quite analogous to those of 

 Sph. cymbifolium, and indeed a careful study of the four species 

 referable to this group would lead us to the conclusion that they 

 have all descended from some common type or parent. 



7. Sphagnum Austini Sullivant. 



In Austin's Musci Appalacbiani. 



Plate XVII. 



Sullivant, Ic. Muse. St up. 1 ined. No. 2, Lindberg Contrib. ad Fl. Crypt. 

 Asi;e Bor-Or. p. 280 (1872). 



Dioicous ; much resembling Sph. papillosum and the American 

 Sph. Portorieense, more or less ochraceous. Stems frequently 

 dichotomous, dark brown, the bark composed of 4 strata of cells, 

 the outer quadrato-hexagonal without fibres, the inner with very 

 fine fibres and large pores. 



Branches closely placed, 3 in a fascicle, 2 divergent, attenuated 

 at points, 1 pendent, short, slender, appressed to stem ; cortical 



vol. IX. R 



