Sphagninn. SPIIAGNACE.E. 



421 



H. LoiiEiTM, Linn. Stem more or less erect, less rij^i.l, .', to 1 foot long, irrcgulaily i.iniiate • 

 leaves squarrose, recurved and subsecuind, ovate-lanceolate, ai uininate, i>licate-st"iate 'lielow ami 

 usually 2-nerved at base, serrulate : capsule subglobose, abiiii)tly horizontal, sulcate when dry • 

 operculum short-conic, apiculate. —Engl. Hot. t. 2072 ; IV-ikeley, 1. c, t. !», lig. 4. Ilijloamiium 

 loreum, Schimp. 1. c, t. 490. Oregon {Pickering, Hall, Nevius) ; Vancouver Ishind {Lij'ull, IFuudV 

 Europe. ' 



Order CXXVII. SPHAGNACE^. 



Moss-like soft and flaccid plants, in bogs or swamps, fasciculately branched and 

 with imbricate concave nerveless colorless and nearly transparent leaves, and bearin"- 

 an opercitlate capsule containing both macrospores and microspores. Inflorescence 

 dioecious, or monoecious with the male and female flowers on difterent branches. Male 

 flowers never terminal, upon clavate catkin-like branches, the antheridia solitary at the 

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

 decaying. Archegonia with 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 perichsetium by a thread-like prolongation of the stem 

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

 the envelope or calyptra bursting irregularly at maturity. Capsule spherical or 

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

 thick columella no^ extended beyond the base of the hemispherical sporangium. 

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

 smaller. Macrospore 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 Hepnf.ica; consisting of 

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

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

 surrounded by one or more layers of very broad empty perforated cells {utricles) with a network 

 of intermediate narrow tubular cells {ducts) 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 mass. A 

 solitary innovation arises from near the summit. Rhizoids none. Leaves 5-ranked, broad-ovate 

 to linear-lanceolate, formed of heterogeneous tissue similar to that of the e'pidemiis of the stem. 

 The porous structure of the stem and leaves makes them exceedingly absorbent of moisture, 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 supply an excellent fuel in regions where wood is 

 wanting. 



1. SPHAGNUM, DiUenius. 



Characters as of the order. 



About 50 species are known, 22 in North America. The genus is sparsely represented in 

 California. 



* Leaves obtuse, roundlsJi or elliptical. 



1. S. cymbifolium, P^hrh. 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, papillose on the back near the a]iex : flowers 

 dioecious : capsule globose on an elongated pedicel, stomatose. — Wilson, P.ryol. 

 Brit. t. 4 ; Schimp. Sphagn. 69, t. 20 ; Sulliv. in Gray's JNIan. 2 ed. t. 1 ; Berkelev, 

 Brit. Moss t. 2, fig. 1. S. lati folium, Hedw. ; Engl. Bot. t. 1405. 



Swamps near Mendocino City {Bolandcr) ; Atlantic States, common ; throughout Europe. Pale 

 or frequently purjilish. 



