118 



Stem weak; cuticular cells in ] — 2 layers, wide, nearly 

 quadratic, with thin walls ; woody tissue yellowish or 

 reddish. Stem leaves very large, tongue-shaped, 220 mm. 

 long, and at the base 1 mm. wide, apex rounded and 

 denticulate, the upper margins more or less rolled np (often 

 on one side only), narrow border of equal width all round; 

 the inner hyaline cells almost poreless, the outer with 

 numerous pores in rows at the commissures, very fibrous, 

 the fibre structure mostly interrupted above the base, but 

 resumed in the basal cells. 



Branch fascicles densely crowded. Branches 4-5 in a 

 fascicle, 2 — 3 stronger, divergent, the rest weaker, pendent. 

 Leaves large, ovate or ovate-lanceolate, P83 — 3'14 mm. long, 

 and at the base 1 — 132 mm. wide, the apex somewhat 

 truncate and coarsely toothed, the margins bordered by 3—4 

 layers of narrow cells and curled far downwards, when dry 

 closely imbricate, rarely placed slightly towards one side, not 

 shining. Hyaline cells, narrow, long, very fibrous, nearly 

 poreless on the inner leaf surface, but with numerous small 

 pores at the commissures on the outer surface, the pores 

 being much larger towards the base. Chlorophyllose cells in 

 transverse section barrel-shaped, thick walled, central, free. 



Hab.—\\\ bog, top Mount Wellington, 1888, W.A.W., 

 Nos. 972-7. 



" By the pore structure in the branch leaves," says Mr. 

 Warnstorf, "this species is very close to Sph. subseamdum, 

 Nees ; whilst the large stem leaves, fibrous to the base and 

 bordered narrowly all round, reminds one of Sph. rufescens 

 and Sph. obesum, Wils." 



Sphagnum macrocephalum, Warnst., Hedwigia 1893, Tab. II. 

 f. 6a— 6g. (Proc. Boy. Soc. Tasm. 1893, p. 204, name only.) 



Plant very robust, bluish-green or tinged with brown ; the 

 short upper 'branches uniting in a thick globular coma; in 

 habit resembling a strong Sph. cymbifolium, especially the var. 

 glaucescens. 



Cuticle of the thick stem in 3— 4 layers of wide cells without 

 fibres, but those of the external layers with a large opening 

 on the topside ; the woody tissue dark red, witb narrow 

 thick-walled cells. 



Stem leaves large, 1-28 mm. long and at the base 1'14 mm. 

 wide, tongue shaped. Hyaline cells towards the margins and 

 the apex divided by obliquely-running walls, and terminating 

 (especially at the apex) in a wide hyaline border, in which, 

 however, the walls appear to be absent; quite without fibres, 

 but with large round pores in nearly all the cell-angles. 



Branches usually five in a fascicle, two slrong, divergent, 

 the rest much weaker, softer, and shorter, and appressed to 



