Spha.iniim. Sl'IlAl iN ACEJ']. 4'Jl 



II. i.uitr.uM. Linn. Stem inoro or less cn-ct, less ri^'id, A to 1 foot lonj:j, incfiulmly pinnnto : 

 Iciivcs sciniuToso, mnirvctl iind snhsccnnd, ovate-Iunct'olato, iicnniiniitf, i>liiiili'-.striate Im'Iow nnil 

 usually '2-norvc'(i at base, seiiulntu : capsulo subglohoso, abiiiiitly liorizontal, suloate when dry ; 

 oiuTculinn short-conic, ajiicuiate. —Engl. Hot. t. 2072 ; Berkeley, 1. c, t. 1), lig. 4. Jlylocomium 

 lorcum, Schiinp. 1. c., t. 490. Oregon {Pickering, Hall, Ncviiis) ; Vancouver Island {Lyall, IVood); 

 Europe. 



OuuEii CXXYII. SPHAGNACE^. 



Moss-like soft and flaccid plants, in bogs or s\vani]is, fascicnlatcly branched and 

 with imbricate concave nerveless colorless and nearly transparent leaves, and bearing 

 an operculate capsule containing both macrospores and microspores. Inflorescence 

 dioecious, or mona'cious with the male and female flowers on different ])ranches. Male 

 flowers never terminal, upon clavate catkindike branches, the antheridia solitary at the 

 side of each leaf, globose or ovoid, pedicellate, bursting elastically at the top and soon 

 decaying. Archegonia Avith numerous filamentous arachnoid paraphyses, globose, 

 1 to 3 in a budlike terminal involucre, only one perfecting fruit, which after fertili- 

 zation is raised out of the pericluctium by a threaddike prolongation of the stem 

 (pseudopodium) and remains sessile upon the dilated discoid summit of the pedicel, 

 the envelope or calyptra bursting irregularly at maturity. Cai)sule spherical or 

 ovoid, with convex operculum, the orifice without peristome or annulus ; the short 

 thick columella not extended beyond the base of the hemispherical sporangium. 

 Spores of two kinds, the larger tetrahedral, the others polyhedral and many times 

 smaller. Macrosporo on germination producing a slender filamentous or at length 

 expanded prothallus on which leaf-buds are formed. 



An order intermediate in its characters between the true Mosses and the Ifrpnticn-, consisting of 

 a single genus of long-lived perennials, of temperate and cold regions of both hemispheres. The 

 stems consist of a cylinder of brown firm thick-wallecl cells, enclosing a bundle of thin cells, and 

 surrounded by one or more layers of very broad empty jierforated cells (xlriilrs) with a network 

 of intermediate narrow tubular cells (duds) containing chlorophyll. A fascicle of short branches 

 is produced by the side of the insertion of each fourth leaf, some reflexed, sterile and appressed to 

 the stem, and others spreading, the uppermost fascicles crowded into a dense terminal jnass. A 

 solitaiy innovation arises from near the summit. Iiliizoids none. Leaves .'J-ranked, broad-ovate 

 to linear-lanceolate, formed of heterogeneous tissue similar to that of the epidermis of the stem. 

 The porous structure of the stem and leaves makes them exceedingly absorbent of moistvue, and 

 in their native bogs they are always soaked with water to their very summits like a sponge. As 

 by their innovations they are continually growing at the top while decaying at the bottom, they 

 at length form deep deposits of "peat" and .supjily an excellent fuel in regions where wood is 

 wanting. 



1. SPHAGNUM, DiUenius. 

 Characters as of the order. 



About r)0 species are known, 22 in North America. The genus is sparsely represented in 

 California. 



* Leaven obtuse, roundish or elliptical. 



1. S. cymbifolium, Khrh. Stems robust, 3 inches to a foot long or more ; branches 

 3 to G in a fascicle, short, tumid, the cortical cells spiral-striate : cauline leaves mostly 

 reflexed, spatulate, rounded at the apex ; branch leaves imbricate, roundish ovate, 

 cucullate and entire, very concave, jiapillose on the back near the apex : flowers 

 di(jecious : capsule globose on an elongatcMl pedicel, stoniatose, — "Wilson, Jiryol. 

 IJrit. t. 4; Schimp. Sphagn. HI), t. 20; Sidliv. in Cray's jNIan. 2 ed. t. 1 ; Berkeley, 

 Brit. Moss t. 2, fig. 1. *S'. latlfolium, Iledw. ; Engl. IJot. t. UOf). 



Swamps near Meiulocino City (Bolandrr) ; Atlantic States, coniniou; throughout Europ. Pale 

 or frefiuently purplish. 



