JOURNAL 
OF 
The New York Botanical Garden 
VoL. XIX September, 1918 No. 225 
THE SPHAGNUM MOSS AND ITS USE IN SURGICAL 
DRESSINGS* 
“Are you collecting Sphagnum Moss?”’ Such was the question 
Id e London 
Graphic for September 2, 191 From this journal we learn 
that the collecting and drying of sphagnum moss and making it 
up into surgical dressings ‘‘has become a national industry” in 
Scotland, and that “the work i is being extended all over England, 
own country it is rapidly coming to the front as an important 
phase of Red Cross work. 
One very serious handicap to the sphagnum enterprise in this 
country is a lack of information regarding where to get material. 
Abundant supplies of good surgical moss have been located in 
supply which can be drawn upon in case of need. What can you 
there i good supplies of surgical sphagnum 
w of course very few people are in a position to furnish off- 
feat the sort of information that we require. To perhaps most 
people the very identity of the sphagnum is veiled with AVSECTY 
and of those who may know it as a kind of ‘‘bog moss" few 
realize that there are a large number of different kinds. Even 
* Contribution from the Osborn Botanical Laboratory. 
203 
