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THE 



MONTHLY MICROSCOPICAL JOURNAL. 



JULY 1, 1871. 



I. — On Bog Mosses. By E. Braithwaite, M.D., F.L.S. 



(Bead before the Royal Microscopical Society, Jtme 7, 1871.) 



Part I. 



For a considerable time the plants known as bog mosses have 

 attracted attention, not only by the masses in which they are found 

 growing, but by their i^ecnliarity of structure, and the difficulty of 

 finding characters by which to estabhsh the species, for the varieties 

 are endless, and such a common facies is impressed on the whole 

 group that Linnaeus regarded them all as one species, which he 

 named Sphagnum jjalustre. In our own time, however, the careful 

 use of the microscope has revealed to us their wonderful organiza- 

 tion, and enabled us to establish many species. 



Up to the publication of Professor Schimper's magnificent trea- 

 tise,* the bog mosses had been universally associated with the other 

 mosses in one class, but in that work they are placed apart, and 





EXPLANATION OF PLATE XC. 



Fig. 1. — Prothallitun with young plant. 

 „ 2. — Sphagnum cymbifolium. Vertical section of stem passing also through two 



leaves, and the base of a branch fascicle. 

 „ 3. — Ditto. Transverse section. These show the pith, the woody cylinder, 



and the foiu- layers of bark cells. 

 „ 4. — Cells of pith. 

 „ 5. — Ditto of wood. 

 „ 6. — Ditto of bark. 



„ 7. — Cells of a branch leaf of S. cymbifolium. 

 „ Ix. — Transverse section of a leaf of S. squarrosum. 

 „ 8. — Cells of a branch leaf of S. acutifolium, seen from the back. 

 „ 8^7. — Transverse section of same. 

 „ 9. — Male flower catkin of *S'. cymbifolium. 

 „ 10. — Ripe antheridium with paraphyses. 

 „ 11. — Vertical section of a capsule still enclosed in the calyptra. c, calyptra ; 



s, cavity of sporangium; p, pedicel of capsule enveloped by the 



vaginula. 

 (Fig. 1 from a specimen lent by Mr. Howse, the rest from Schimper's work.) 



* ' Entwickelungs-geschichte der Torfmoose,' 1858. 

 VOL. VI. 



