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THE SPHAGNA CE^E OR FEAT-MOSSES OF 



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Var. y. ptumostim, Nees, Hscii. 



Submersed, slender, flaccid, elongated ; branches decurved, all 

 uniform and divergfint, with long, lanceolato-subulate, soft leaves. 

 Perichaetia elongated with distant leaves. 



Synon. — Sj>/i. aispidatttm van plumosum, Nees, Hsch. St. Bry. Germ. p. 24, 

 t. iv. f. 9*. Brid. Bry. Univ. i. p. 15. Schimp. Torfm. p. 61, pi. xvi. 8; Synops. 

 p. 676, et ed. 2, p. 832. Russow, Beitr. p. 60. 



Sj>/t. cuspidatum \a.r. mollissimutK, Russow, Beitr. p. 61 (a dense, yellowish form). 



Sph. laxifolium var. serrulatittn, Schliep. in Verb. Z. B. Gesel. Wien, 1865, 

 p. 396 (a form with the margins of leaf serrulate). 



Hab. — In deeper water, rarely bearing fruit. 



Plants wholly submersed, elongated sometimes to a length of 

 two feet, at others with the fascicles closely approximated and then 

 resembling a tuft of confervae ; the latter form has been found 

 near Todmorden by the late J. Nowell, and is Russow's var. 

 molltsshmtm. 



Var. S. brevifolium, Lindb. 



Stems firm, 5-6 in. high, pale yellowish green ; stem leaves 

 short, ovate, obtuse, with a few irregular teeth at apex ; cells 

 fibrillose in the apical part, the marginal cells very narrow and 

 elongated. Branches in close-set fascicles, short, ascending and 

 divergent, arcuato-decurved from the middle, attenuated toward 

 the points ; the leaves subsecund when dry, spreading and imbri- 

 cated when moist, short, ovate, somewhat oblique and unequal-sided, 

 the apex truncate, 5-toothed. 



SvNON. — Sph, curvifolium, Hunt, in Herb. suo. 



Sph. lariciiium, Schimp. Synops. ed. 2, p. 845 (the Loch Kandor specimens). 



Sph. cuspidatum var. branfoUum, Lindb. in lit. Braithw. Sphag. Brit. Exs. n. 53. 



Hab. — Deep bogs. 



England: Carrington Moss, Cheshire (Hunt). Scotland: Near Loch .".andor, 

 Aberdeenshire (Hunt). 



This plant at first sight very much resembles a pale form of 

 Sph. laricmmn, but a microscopic examination soon shows us that 

 it differs in structure from that species, and constitutes a very 

 peculiar variety of S. cuspidatum, having both the stem leaves and 

 branch leaves shorter than usual. The plant figured in Sullivant's 

 Icones Muse. Suppl. t. 2, as 6". cuspidatum var. appears to stand 

 midway between the present plant and the normal form of the 

 species. 



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