40 



THE SPHAGNACE^ OR PEAT-MOSSES OF 



I 



Stems 6-12 in. high, simple or bipartite, robust, reddish 

 brown ; cells of the peripheral layers strongly incrassate, brownish 

 red ; cuticular cells in 3-4 strata, the innermost being the largest, 

 the external rectangular, fibrose, and with several foramina. Stem 

 leaves reflexcd, small, lingulate-spathulate, very slighdy fimbriate 

 at the rounded apex ; cells all smaller and narrower than in Sph. 

 papillosum, the basal hyaline ; fibres and pores usually absent. 



Ramuli 4-5 in a fascicle, 2-3 divergent, arcuate, turgid, acute 

 and attenuated at apex, the others pendent, attenuated, appressed 

 to stem ; cuticular cells densely fibrose, rectangular, foraminate, 

 without any mixture of retort cells. 



Leaves of divergent branches dense, soft, ovate, deeply concave, 

 more prolonged and a little recurved at apex, which does not differ 

 in colour from the rest of the leaf, and is also less cucullate, more 

 entire and less serrulate t'l.an in Sph. papillostim ; when dry the 

 margins are often distinctly undulated. Cells much smaller, the 

 hyaline internally never papillose on the periphery, the chloro- 

 phyllose subtrigono-ovate, and somewhat nearer to the concave 

 margin of the section. 



Perichaetial bracts laxer, less cucullate and plicate, rounded 

 obtuse at apex; cells very small in centre of bract, all the lower 

 uniform prosenchymatico-rectangular, with several rows of normal 

 hyaline ones at margin, the upper part bordered by a series of 

 very long narrow cells. 



Spores ochraceous. Male plants with short, ochraceous, purplish 

 or olivaceous amentula placed in the coma ; the bracts cochleari- 

 concave, resembling the branch leaves in structure. 



Hab. — Deep bogs and turbaries in the lowlands. Frequent throughout Europe 

 and N. America. Fr. July. 



This species is the type of Linnseus's Sph. pahistre, and 

 Lindberg retains the same appellation for it; but since Linnaeus 

 referred all the Sphagna to it, I prefer to use the name by which 

 it was first distinguished as a separate species. 



This peat-moss is very variable in size and colour, and sometimes 

 forms beds of great extent, free from admixture with other species, 

 but occasionally it may be found growing intermixed with Sph. 

 papillosum, each retaining its distinctive characters. It may 

 generally be distinguished from the latter species by its softer and 

 more attenuated branches, with the leaves of thinner texture, with 



