36 



THE SPHAGNACE^ OR PEAT-MOSSES OF 



% I 



V Sph. cymbifolium, AucT. p. p. et var. y. ScHiMP. Synops. ed. 2, p. 848 (1876). 



Sph. cymbifolium var, a. turgiduni, Martius, F1. Crypt. Erlang. p. 117 (1817). 

 Nees, in Bryol. Germ. i. p. 8, tab. i, fig. i. Brid. Bry. Univ. i. p. 4. (Sententid 

 Lindbergii hue pertinet.) 



Sph. immersum, Cassebeer, Wetterauische Laubmoose, n. 8 (1832). 



Sph. palustre, Brotherus, Musci Fenniae Exsic. n. 43 (187 1). 



Dioicous ; in lax distinct tufts, or intermixed with other 

 species ; pale ochraceous or pale brownish green, never tinged 

 with purple. 



Stems 4-10 in. high, simple or bipartite, stout, fragile, reddish 

 brown ; cells of the peripheral layers strongly incrassate, dark 

 brown ; cuticular cells in four strata, those of the innermost and 

 outermost layer being the smallest, the external without fibres, but 

 with several pores. Stem leaves reflexed and appressed to stem, 

 cucullate, spathulate-linguiform, rounded, obtuse and slightly fim- 

 briate at apex, somewhat auricled at base, margin plane, serrulate ; 

 lowest basal cells brownish, globose, incrassate, above rhombic, 

 faintly fibrose, and with a single foramen at back. 



Ramuli 3-5 in a fascicle, two divergent, short, acute, the rest 

 dependent, attenuated, appressed to stem ; cuticular cells densely 

 fibrose, rectangular, with a large foramen at upper end. 



Leaves of divergent branches dense, rigid, patent, slightly 

 auricled, coloured brown at apex ; lowest small, obliquely ovato- 

 triangular, with a broad hyaline border, median very broadly ovate, 

 cymbiform-concave, rounded obtuse at apex, deeply cucullate, 

 bordered with a single row of very narrow cells, margin densely 

 serrulate above. 



Cells at base as in the stem leaves ; all the hyaline internally 

 where their walls are united with those of the chlorophyllose cells, 

 densely and minutely papillose ; median prosenchymatous with 

 dense spiral and annular fibres, and several large marginal 

 foramina on the under surface ; upper rhombic, with foramina also 

 on the upper surface, and in the apical the foramen at back is so 

 large that nearly all the membrane disappears, and thus the 

 tuberculate appearance is produced ; in section the chlorophyl- 

 lose cells are narrowly elliptical, central, and enclosed by the 

 hyaline. 



Perichaetia several, placed in the coma ; bracts about eighteen, 

 large, accrescent, erect, oblong, rounded, truncate and cucullate at 

 apex, channelled-plicate ; cells in the middle of lower half of two 

 forms, very large and long, pleurenchymatous without papillae or 



