12 G Y M N O S T O M I. [ Sphagnum. 



dividuals to the narrowest and most falcate ones, as greatly to 

 strengthen the opinion held by the older Muscologists, that they 

 are but different forms of one and the same kind. 



Of the 14 species instituted by Bridel, and the 9 attributed to 

 Germany by the excellent Hornschuch and Nees, we feel quite 

 certain that few will prove constant to their characters. We 

 think to have steered a middle course in keeping up the four 

 species described in the first edition of this work; not indeed 

 that we are satisfied of the correctness of so doing ; but Jbecause 

 we think they afford the principal types under which all the others 

 may be arranged. 



All of them are aquatics, and are supposed to constitute the 

 basis of the great bogs in our swampy and moory districts ; 

 they are remarkable for their very pale or almost white colour, 

 tinged, however, frequently with a deep red or rose hue when the 

 water has been dried up and has left them exposed to the action 

 of the air and sun. The texture of the leaves is highly beauti- 

 ful, extremely thin and membranous, always destitute of nerve ; 

 reticulated in the first instance, with large waved lines, and 

 secondly, with very much smaller and delicate transverse lines, 

 sometimes straight and sometimes curved, as is well represented 

 in Dr. GreviUe's figure, Wern. Trans, v. 4. t. 7. /. 10, 11. The 

 same pale colour, and in some measure the same texture, are 

 found to exist in the Octoblepharis albida, and in Dicranum 

 glaucum. Indeed we are confident that the Sphagnum Javense of 

 Bridel and Schwaegrichen will prove to be a Dicranum, very 

 nearly indeed allied to, if at all distinct from, D. glaucum. 



As to geographical distribution, perhaps few Mosses are more 

 universally diffused. Even in the tropics they have been found ; 

 but probably always at a considerable elevation from the level of 

 the sea; for Humboldt, who has alone stated the elevation at 

 which it is found in S. America, tells us the Sph. capillifolium 

 grows at a height of 1050 toises upon the mountain Quindiu. 



The sessile capsule and irregularly bursting calyptra, (indepen- 

 dently of the aspect of the plants) distinguish the present genus 

 from that of Gymnostomum ; and the entire capsule and deciduous 

 lid, from Andrcea. 



