CRYPTOGAMIA MUSCI. 55 



4. G. tenue, slender ; stem scarcely any ; leaves entire, outer 

 ones very short, ovate-lanceolate, inner ones linear-lanceolate, 

 obtuse ; fruitstalk rather long ; capsule oblong ; lid with a short 

 straight beak. Dicranum cyUndricutn, SM. Fl. Brit. 1221. Gym- 

 iwstomum paucifolium, SM. Comp. 161. 



Hob. Sandstone rocks, rare. On a rock at the side of the 

 footpath leading through the plantation above Ord-mill. 

 July. 



32. SPHAGNUM. 



1. S obtusifolium, branches tumid, deflexed ; leaves ovate, ob- 

 tuse, concave. S. latifolium^ SM. Fl. Brit. 1145. 



Hob. Bogs in moors, common. July, August. 



2. S. acutifolium, branches slender, tapered, weeping; leaves 

 ovate-lanceolate, crowded.*?, capillifolium, SM. Fl. Brit. 1146. 



Hob. Bogs with the preceding, and equally common. 

 The leaves are very often of a reddish-pink colour. 

 July. 



3. S. cuspidatum, branches attenuated; leaves lanceolate-sub- 

 ulate, lax. 



Hob. Peat bogs, generally growing in water. In peat pits 

 on Cheviot, and on Coldingham Moor, abundant, but 

 not in fruit. 



The Sphagna grow in compact elastic knolls, and by their 

 decomposition contribute greatly to the formation of peat. 

 Their stems are about a span in length, branched, and 

 densely clothed with soft nerveless beautifully reticulated 

 leaves, of a straw-yellow colour, and which distinguish the 

 genus from almost all other mosses. The Laplanders, Ice- 

 landers, and the North American Indians, use the Sphagna, 

 for lining their neat and curious cradles. The moss forms 

 a soft elastic bed, which absorbs moisture very readily, 

 and affords such a protection from the cold of a rigorous 

 winter, that its place would be ill supplied by cloth. Mr 

 W. CURTIS obtained the reward of the Society of Arts for 

 his valuable application of these mosses to the packing of 

 young trees for exportation. 



