THE EUROPEAN SPHAGNACE 258 
strongly convex hyaline cells or free; lumen large, triangular, 
wall equally thickened all round. 
nerally monoicous, more rarely dioicous; male branches 
short, in the antheridium-bearing part clavate and always red or 
violet, later becoming elongate and thinner at the apex; perigonial 
racts similar in outline and cell-structure to the other branch- 
leaves, but non-fibrillose and non-porose in the lower half. Peri- 
cheetial bracts large, ovate, produced above into a longer or shorter 
apex with inrolled margin; border wide; in the lower half com- 
posed of long, rectangular, nodulose chlorophyllose cells only, in the 
upper half of both kinds of cells; hyaline cells rhombic to rhomboid, 
once or several times divided. Fruit very rare; spores yellow, 
quite smooth, 21-25 p in diameter. 
ab. Most frequent in mountainous regions, rare in the low- 
lands. 
Distrib. Common in Northern and Western Europe and North 
merica. 
ny other tw e 
the stem is either whitish, greenish, or straw-coloured, and never 
red, only in the rarest cases can a faint tinge of red be seen. The 
superficial cortical layer of the stem has either large scattered 
membrane-thinnings or pores; these are sometimes, however, so 
few in number and so scattered as to be only made out with 
difficulty and after staining, but are never altogether absent. The 
stem-leaves resemble those of S. acutifolivum most nearly, forming 
an isosceles triangle, with truncate and toothed apex, with inrolled 
margin, and with the border widened below; the hyaline cells are 
not once divided, as is generally the case in 8. acutifolium, but are 
in most cases several times septate, and are more frequently without 
than with fibrils and pores in the upper part. e stem-leaves are 
recourse to the microscope. 
e varieties are based upon the colour, and the forms upon 
the direction of the branches. 
