44 THE SFJIAGNACEAS OR PEAT-MOSSES OF 



of the branches, beautiful yellow-green colour, and leptodermous 

 capsules ; and it also often grows intermixed with other species. 

 The name tenelhtm was first applied to this species, we are in- 

 formed by Professor Lindberg, by Ehrhart, as indicated by a spe- 

 cimen in the St. Petersburg herbarium, and the same species 

 received the same name from Persoon, as proved by a specimen 

 from him, preserved in Swartz's herbarium, and a description 

 is given by Bridel in his Mantissa Muscorum (1819); but the 

 plant does not appear to have been well understood by the older 

 authors, as small forms of various species appear under the name 

 tenellum in their herbaria ; that figured as tenellum in the Bryo- 

 logia Germanica evidently belongs to Sph. acutifolium. Bridel also 

 admits Sph. molluscum into the Bryol. Universa, but he only copied 

 the description of Bruch without having seen the plant. 



Var. /3. longifolium, Lindb. 



Plants shorter, more densely tufted, with crowded branches, and 



of a lurid or dingy green colour. Stem leaves longer, the hyaline 



cells fibrillose throughout. Branches more attenuated, with longer, 



narrower, and more pointed leaves. 



Synon. — Braithw. Sphag. Brit. Exsic. n. 12. 



Hab. — Finland: Helsingfors (Lindberg). England: Stansfield Moor, Tod- 

 morden (Nowell, 1846); Cam Galva Moor, Plymouth (Curnow, 1861); Staveley, 

 Westmoreland (Barnes, 1878). 



This has a different aspect from the typical state of the plant, 

 owing to its colour being usually of a dirty white ; it also appears 

 to be much rarer than the ordinary plant. 



Var. y. fluitans, Schimp. 



Very long and slender, without any pendent branches, all the 

 leaves remote ; perichaetia scattered throughout the stem, pseudo- 

 podia very long. 



Synon. — Schimp. Torfm. t. xii. f. 6, 7, 8 ; Synops. Muse. p. 682. 



Sph. molluscum var. /8. immersum, Schimp. Synops. Muse. ed. 2, p. 846 (1876). 



Hab. — In stagnant water of the Marais des Fonts in the Swiss Jura (Lesquereux). 



6. Sphagnum laricinum, Spruce. 



PL. VII. AND VIII. 



Dioicous, yellowish or pale brownish green ; the stem with 

 2-3 layers of cuticular cells. Stem leaves small, ovato-triangular, 

 minutely fimbriate at apex. Branch leaves subsecund, recurved 

 at point, ovate, pointed, 3-5 toothed at apex ; hyaline cells with 



