20 CONNECTICUT GEOL. AND NAT. HIST. SURVEY. [Bull. 



proceeds. The valves, as they separate, soon become dry and 

 black, and the columella appears like a fine hair projecting 

 from the open capsule. The gametophyte covered over with 

 sporophytes often presents the appearance of a tuft of fine 

 grass. 



The structure of the sporophyte in the Anthocerotales is so 

 peculiar that Howe separated the order from the Hepaticae 

 and made of it a distinct subclass, to which he gave the name 

 Anthocerotes. He therefore divided the Bryophytes into three 

 subclasses ; Hepaticae, Anthocerotes, and Musci. In this 

 procedure he is followed, provisionally at least, by Campbell, 

 but European writers continue to use the term Hepaticae in 

 the old sense. 



THE SPHAGNALES 



The Sphagnales or Peat Mosses comprise the single genus 

 Sphagnum. They are well represented in Connecticut, and 

 include some of our largest and most conspicuous Bryophytes. 

 The peat mosses are occasionally found on wet rocks or banks, 

 but are most at home in bogs, where they sometimes grow sub- 

 merged but more frequently rise above the ♦surface of the 

 water. In favorable localities they form dense and extensive 

 colonies. Under these circumstances the stems are upright and 

 afford one another mutual support. No rhizoids are developed 

 except when the plants are very young. The branching is 

 always monopodial, the ♦branches arising in fascicles of from 

 three to eight. The fascicles are numerous, and the branches 

 appear densely crowded at the tips of the plants because the 

 elongation of the stem is at first very slow. In older parts 

 the fascicles become more separated. The branches are of 

 three types : — spreading branches, which remain simple and 

 are limited in growth ; pendent branches, which also remain 

 simple and limited in growth, but which grow downward close 

 to the stem and form a sort of loose covering around it ; erect 

 branches, which are unlimited in growth and give rise to 

 spreading and pendent branches of their own. These erect 

 branches are only occasionally produced, and, since they repeat 

 the stem in all respects, apparently arise by forking. 



The leaves are arranged in five longitudinal rows, although 



