iT;>t ;^.- vv^ '^ ^.-r IT' -■ r : ■? i *' 



74 



r^iS SPJIAGNACEyE OR PEATMOSSES OF 



attenuated suddenly into a narrow minutely -toothed point, free 

 from fibres. 



Synon — Sph. acutifolium van 8. luridum, Hueben. Muse. Germ. p. 28. Braithw. 

 Sphag. Brit. Exsic. n. 40. 



Hab. — Deep peat-bogs. 



Europe. — Barmbeck, near Hamburg (Huebener). Ben Lawers, Perthshire (Braith- 

 waite) ; Darnholm, Goathland, Yorkshire (Rev. Mr. Crouch); Witherslack Moss 

 (Barnes) ; near Llanberis (Boswell). 



I have referred this plant to Huebener's variety, as it closely 

 accords with his description. The plants have a dirty brownish 

 tinge, and their closely placed fascicles with the branches of equal 

 length give it rather a peculiar appearance, not usual in any forms 

 of Sph. aaitifolmm. 



Var. /A. Icete-virens, Braithw. 



Growing in small dense tufts, bright green above, light or 

 ochraceous brown below. Stem leaves ovate, short, or elongated ; 

 the apex obtuse, obscurely 5-toothed ; the cells without fibres. 

 Branches in rather remote fascicles, elongated, ascending and 

 divergent ; the leaves loosely imbricated, large, broadly ovate at 

 base, suddenly narrowed into a longish, truncate, 5-toothed point. 



Hab. — By the margin of moorland streams. 



At Darnholm and Kazebeck, Goathland, Yorkshire (Braithwaite). Reawick, 

 Shetland (Sim). 



This may possibly be a form of the next variety, but as I have 

 no authentic types of the latter it may for the present stand apart. 

 The small dense cushions, of a beautiful bright green colour while 

 growing, are very unusual in this species, from which some shade 

 of red is hardly ever absent. At Darnholm it grows with 

 Sph. molle, )8, and thus got accidentally introduced into the 

 Sphag. Brit. Exsic. with that plant ; at Kazebeck it is found 

 intermixed with Sph. cymbifolium var. cotigestuni. 



Var. V. patuhim, Sciiimp. 



Plants more robust, pale green. Branches lax, elongated, 

 flexuose, spreading ; their leaves longer, patent, la:dy incumbent, 

 broadly ovate, loosely areolate. Stem leaves large, the apex 

 obtuse, lacerate, or fimbriate. 



SvNON. — 3ph. acutifolium var. ^. patulitm, Schimp. Synops. p. 674, et ed. 2, 

 p. 826. Braithw. Sphag. Brit. Exsic. n. 41. 



