BRITISH MOSSES. 49 



Again, the mode of growth of the plant, abandoning its 

 moorings on the soil and throwing out roots into the water, 

 and growing suc- 

 cessively year after 

 year, enables it 

 not only to attain 

 great growth, but 

 also when the oc- 

 casion demands, to Fia> 30 ._ cluster of cells at bage o 



keep pace with the leaf of Sphagnum acutifolium. After 



. , . Schimper 



rise of the water m 



which it maybe growing, " the individual thus becoming," 

 it has been said, " in a manner immortal, and supplying 

 a perpetual fund of decomposing vegetable matter." 



Physical Results from Structure. The result of these 

 peculiarities is that the entire plant of any species of 

 Sphagnum is a perfect sponge. When dry it is capable (as 

 may easily be found by experiment) of rapidly absorbing 

 moisture, and carrying it upwards through the plant ; and 

 when growing in vast beds it acts thus on a great scale. 

 Everyone who knows Scotland must know how on many 

 a steep mountain-side, or on the bottom and sides of a 

 gorge, these beds will hold up a great body of water against 

 the force of gravity ; and again, the Irish bogs are described 

 as often ascending from the edges towards the interior, 

 sometimes by a gradual and sometimes by a sudden 

 ascent, so that at times the bog is so high that it reaches 

 the height of the church steeples of the adjoining country, 

 without any rising ground intervening. 



These peculiarities in the structure of Sphagnum 



