If 



52 



THE SPHAGNACE^ OR FEAT-MOSSES OF 



I 



"I i 



ovate-acuminate, truncate, with 6-10 minute teeth ; the chloro- 

 phyllose cells central, compressed. Perichaetial bracts ovate- 

 oblong. 



o 



Synon. — Sph. Angstromii, C. Hartm. Skand. Fl. ed. 7, p. ,399 (1858). Lindb. 

 in Ofv. K. Vet. Ak. Forh. xix. p. 140, n. 10 (1862). Scuimp. Synops. ed. 2, 

 p. 842 (1876). Braithw. in Monthl. Micr. Journ. July, 1873, P- ^4> P'- '"'"• 



Sph. cymbifotium var. yS. cordifoliutn, Hartm. op. cit. ed. 3-6 p. p. 



Sph. insulosum, Angstr. Mss. Schpr. Synops. p. 683 (i860). Milde, Bryol. 

 Siles. p. 390 (1869). ScHLiEPH. in Verb. Z. B. Gesel. Wien, 1865, p. 405. 



DIoicous ; in large, soft, dense, pale green tufts, light brownish- 

 yellow below. Stems simple or dichotomous, 6-10 in. high, 

 whitish, with three layers of thin cuticular cells, free from fibres 

 and pores ; cells of the peripheral layers yellowish white. Cauline 

 leaves broadly obovate-lingulate, minutely auricled, the apex trun- 

 cate and slightly eroso-fimbriate ; hyaline cells in upper half 

 rhomboid, at middle base flexuose-rhomboid, thence to margins 

 very narrow, flexuose-Hnear, free from pores and fibres, or with a 

 few faint fibres in the upper part. 



Branches crowded, 3-5 in a fascicle, 1-2 patulous, arcuato- 

 decurved, the rest slender, greatly elongated, appressed to stem; 

 the retort cells small, cylindric, perforated at the scarcely projecting 

 apex. 



Ramuline leaves densely crowded, indistinctly 5-ranked, when 

 moist turgidly imbricate, when dry erecto-patent, opake, concave, 

 widely ovate-acuminate; the apex broadly truncate, with 6-io 

 minute, unequal, obtuse teeth; the margin incurved in the upper 

 two-thirds, and with a faint border of two rows of extremely 

 narrow cells; the hyaline cells annulate-fibrose, minutely and 

 Sparingly porose, the chlorophyllose cells enclosed by the hyaline, 

 much compressed ; leaves of the pendent branches with the apex 

 rounded and indistinctly toothed. Capsules seated in the coma or 

 upper fascicles, on a thickish white peduncle ; the perichcetium 

 inflated, oblong, whitish; lower bracts ovate-acuminate, muticous, 

 middle broadly ovate-oblong, innermost broadly oblong, deeply 

 concave and often cucullate at apex, all with very narrow linear 

 areolation, quite free from fibres and pores. Spores ferruginous. 

 Male plants growing in the same tufts with the female, more 

 slender, the amentula short, ovate, closely imbricated, pale 

 green, crowded in the coma ; bracts roundish ovate, in the lower 

 part of lax widt curved non-porose cells, often free from fibres, 



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