12 SPHAGNACE/E. 



Var. e. viride Boul. Plants soft, more or less bright green, 

 in loose tufts ; stem pale, green or yellowish. Branches usually 

 slender, sometimes lightly arcuate ; the leaves imbricated, some- 

 times squarrose (var. squarrosulum Grav.) Stem leaves large, 

 often fibrose throughout, narrowly margined, sometimes distinctly 

 and strongly auricled at the base with fibrose utricular cells (var. 

 auriculatum Lindb.) 



Hab. Wet heaths, pools and ditches. Not common. The var. £ more common 

 and more widely distributed than the type. The var. y in bogs and pools, frequent. 

 The var. 5 more rare, in deep pools, lakes and ditches. The var. e in more shady 

 places, and sides of pools. 



Sphagnum subsecundum among all our species produces the most widely differing 

 varieties, if not so great a wealth of forms as S. acutifolium. It comprises plants of 

 almost all shades of colour, and of almost every degree of robustness ; some forms 

 being as delicate as S. tenettum, while others rival the Cymbifolia group in size of 

 leaves and thickness of branches. The typical form, much less frequent than the 

 var. contortum, is best characterised by its dark stems, laxly set and slender branches, 

 and its small stem leaves with few fibres. 



The var. turgidum is in its extreme forms a marked plant, differing from Wilson's 

 var. obesum (with which it has been erroneously confounded) by the cuspidate, terete 

 branches, which are also usually much crowded. 



I have followed Cardot in subordinating the var. auriculatum as only one of the 

 forms of the var. viride Boul, which comprises a fairly well marked group of forms ; 

 whereas the auriculate base of the stem leaves is a character exceedingly variable and 

 ill defined, and one which may, moreover, be found equally in plants of the contortum 

 and other groups. 



The var. simplicissimum Milde mentioned by Braifhwaite as having been found 

 in Monmouth with simple stems, unbranched or nearly so, and with the stem leaves 

 having the areolation usual in branch leaves, should perhaps be regarded as a form, or 

 accidental state, rather than a variety. The same state -may not unfrequently be found 

 mixed with the normal forms in other species, as in S. tenettum, S. rigidum and S. 

 molle. 



From its polymorphous nature S. subsecundum is liable to be confounded at first 

 sight with several other species ; the form and areolation of the branch leaves will, 

 however, usually serve to distinguish it from all but S. laricinum, while from that and 

 from all other British species it is clearly marked off by the single layer of articular 

 cells, when the stem is viewed in section. 



* Sphagnum laricinum Spruce. (Tab. VII. B.) 



Differs from 5". subsecundum only in the following points ; 

 cuticular cells of stem in two, sometimes three layers ; cells of 

 branch leaves usually with fewer pores, and, according to Braith- 

 waite, the inner perichsetial bracts obtuse and emarginate, 

 instead of pointed as in that species. With regard to the 

 minor characters sometimes given, such as the relative size of the 

 stem leaves, and of the hyaline cells in the branch leaves, in the 

 two plants, the statements of different authors are so directly 

 at variance that it is clear no reliance can be placed upon them as 

 distinguishing features. 



