sphagnum. 21 



undulate at margins, flexuose and recurved at apex, so as to give 

 the branches a soft and feathery appearance. Margin involute at 

 the tip, apex toothed, truncate. Hyaline cells with a very few 

 small pores. Chlorophyllose cells oval-triangular in section, on 

 the dorsal surface. Spores yellow. 



Var. /3. riparium Lindb. (S. riparium Angstr., S. spectabile 

 Schp. Syn.) Taller and more robust, deep green. Stem leaves 

 larger, deltoid ovate, rounded and slightly fringed at apex, with- 

 out fibres. Branches long, leaves scarcely undulated when dry ; 

 elongated at apex, the point sometimes composed of chloro- 

 phyllose cells without hyaline ones. 



Var. y. pulchrum Lindb. Robust, golden yellow. Stem leaves 

 fibrose above, contracted into a minute, recurved apiculus. 

 Branches thick, short, spreading or ascending, dense-leaved. 



Hab. Bogs and pools, frequent. The var. $ more or less immersed. The var. 

 y in bogs in the north. 



Sphagnum intermedium in the humid state is difficult to distinguish from S. 

 Girgensohnii, and some green forms of S. acutifolium and 5. subsecundum. The 

 broadly-bordered, non-fibrose stem leaves of the present species will distinguish it 

 from the last which has also the pores of the branch leaves numerous ; while the large 

 pores in the branch leaves of the two former will serve to distinguish them at the outset. 

 When dry the soft, flexuose, and recurved leaves, flattened above and not involute or 

 tubular, at once separate it from all other species. It may be remarked that the 

 squarrose leaves of 5. sqtiarromm are more rigid, and, as it were, suddenly bent back 

 at an angle from the rest of the leaf, while the recurved leaves of the present species 

 turn back in a gradual curve. 



The differences between the present plant and S. cuspidatum are dealt with under 

 that species. 



There seems no sufficient reason to consider the var. riparium as a sub-species ; 

 the peculiar areolation of the leaf apex is found in other varieties of this plant, and 

 also in submerged forms of .S. cuspidatum and S. Lindbergii, and is probably only a 

 state directly induced by the aquatic habit, and not confined to any one species or even 

 group of species ; it is by no means constant even in this variety, and when it does 

 occur is often absent in some of the leaves of a branch ; there may frequently also be 

 found leaves in which the apex is mainly composed of hyaline cells narrow and destitute 

 of fibres. 



12. Sphagnum cuspidatum Ehrh. (Tab. VIII. C). 



Green or yellowish white ; usually more or less aquatic and 

 submerged, 6-18 inches high or more. Stem pale green or 

 pale brown, cuticular cells in 2-3 layers, distinct, not porose. 

 Stem leaves longer than in the last species, often pointed, fibrose 

 in the upper part and often to the base ; margin as in that 

 species, but of somewhat longer and narrower cells. Pendent 

 branches not so closely appressed, and not concealing the stem. 

 Divergent branches cuspidate at the apex, with the upper leaves 



