58 On Bog Mosses. 



female but more slender, the spikelets of flowers thick clavate, 

 green, ochraceons or reddish, the bracts broadly ovate, like the 

 branch leaves in structure. Fruits either clustered on the coma or 

 scattered, peduncular leaves laxly imbricated, broadly oval, obtuse, 

 with their upper hyaline cells fibrose; capsule solid, but little 

 exserted or on a moderately elongated peduncle ; spores rufo- 

 ferruginous. 



Var. (6 squarrosulum Bry. Grerm. Plants slender in loose 

 dark green tufts, divergent branches loose, their leaves more pointed 

 and spreading, somewhat squarrose. 



Var. 7 comimdum Schultz Supp. Fl. Starg. 



Var. fi congestum Schp. — Sph. compactum Brid. Bry. univ. I, p. 16, pro parte. 



Stem mostly divided, densely tufted, pale purple or rufous and 

 green ; branches densely crowded, sub-erect, julaceous, obtuse ; 

 upper cells of stem leaves having spiral threads. 



Hab. — Marshy places in woods, watery heaths and wet hollows 

 in moorlands. Generally distributed. Fr. June, This species is 

 at once distinguished by the cucullate squamnlose apex of the 

 branch leaves, and the presence of very fine fibres in the cortical 

 cells. The intermediate leaves are very minute, but may be most 

 readily seen by cutting out a piece of the stem, with a single 

 branch-fascicle attached, and observing them in situ. The draw- 

 ings are made from moderately lax specimens of the typical form, 

 collected by myself on Ben Lawers, y6 from Continental specimens 

 collected by Herr Scliliepha^ke, / collected by J. G, Baker, Esq., 

 on Honister Crag. 



EXPLANATION OF PLATE IX. 



Sphagnum cymbifolium. 



a. — Femnle plant, a $ . — Upper part of male plant. 



/3.— Var. squarrosulum. y. — Var. compactum. 



1. — Part of stem with a single branch-fascicle. 



2. — Catkin of male flowers. 2 6. — Bract from same. 



3. — Fruit with its peduncle. 4. — Peduncular leaf 



5. — Stem leaf. 5 a a. — Areolation of apex of same. 5 a b. — Ditto of base. 



6.— Leaf from middle of a divergent branch. 6x. — Transverse section. 6jo. — Point 



of same. 6 a. — Areolation about half-way up. 

 7. — Intermediate leaves from the base of a divergent branch. 

 8. — Leaf from apex of same. 



For section of stem and cortical cells, see PI. XC. in last volume. 



