SPHAGNEI. 305 



118. ABCHIDIUM, Bridel. 



Sporangium globose, sessile on the short tumid vaginula, 

 without any lid ; columella fugacious ; spores very large, few 

 in number ; veil irregular, torn in the middle. 



1. A. phascoides, Brid. — Hook, fy Wils. t. v.; Eng. Bot. 

 t. 2107.; (Plate 24, fig. 10) ; Moug. §■ Neat. n. 904. 



In heaths and fields. Bearing fruit in spring. 



Monoicous. Stem at first short, sending off innovations 

 for one or two years from the base of the female flowers ; 

 sterile shoots flagelliform with scattered, minute, shorter 

 leaves ; fertile stem stouter ; leaves lanceolate, entire ; nerve 

 ceasing below the minutely toothed tip ; pericha^tial leaves 

 larger, toothed above ; spores from eight to sixteen in each 

 sporangium, subgloboso-tetrahedric, with one convex and three 

 or four flat sides ; veil membranous ; leaf-cells lax, subhexa- 

 gonal, elongated, nearly uniform. 



Family III.— SYNCLADEI. 

 Branches fasciculate ; fruit cladocarpous. 



Oedee XXXIII. SPHAGN~EI, Mont. 



119. SPHAGNUM, Dill. 

 Sporangium globose; receptacle elongated, fleshy; peri- 

 stome none; veil ruptured. near the middle ; leaf-cells of two 

 kinds, the one large, containing a spiral thread, the walls 

 perforated between the spirals ; the other linear, surrounding 

 the first ; prothallus scale-like. 



* Leaves obtuse. 

 1. S. eymbifolium, Ehr. ; stem robust, mostly bipartite; 



x 



