EUROPE AND NORTH AMERICA. 31 
MONOGRAPH OF THE SPECIES FOUND IN 
EUROPE AND NORTH AMERICA. 
SPHAGNUM, Di1ten. 
Stems dichotomous, fastigiate, erect, renewed by an annual in- 
novation at apex; ramuli fascicled at base, flagelliform, partly 
patulous, partly adpresso-reflexed; the younger clavate, erect, 
clustered in a dense capitulum at summit of stem. Cauline leaves 
5-ranked, erecto-incumbent or reflexed, soft; ramuline leaves 
imbricated, nerveless, pale and fragile when dry; the areolation 
composed of large vesicular, sigmoid, hyaline cells, containing 
spiral fibres and perforated by pores, and separated by narrow 
duct-like opake cells placed between their adjacent walls. In- 
florescence monoicous or dioicous ; the male strobiliform on lateral 
ramuli, antheridia very numerous, solitary at the side of each 
involucral bract, pedicellate, subglobose; female forming long 
gemmules with 1-5 archegonia, and branched, thread-like para- 
physes. Fruit solitary, concealed in the perichetium, and at matu- 
rity elevated on an elongated pseudopodium. Capsule globose, 
sessile on the top of the vaginula, brown; operculum minute, 
hemispherical, without annulus or peristome; columella elevated, 
hemispheric, covered by the excavato-hemispheric sporangium ; 
pericarpic membrane very thin, whitish, torn irregularly, adhering 
partly to the capsule, partly to the top of the vaginula. 
Plants dwelling in marshes and peat bogs, aggregated in dense 
tufts or cushions, which consist all of one species or of an ad- 
mixture of two or more; absorbing water with great avidity and 
retaining it like a sponge. 
Sect. I.—Evuspuacnum, Lindo. 
Plants pale green, whitish, or ochraceous, occasionally more or 
less tinged with purple. Branches of two forms, in distinct fascicles 
of 3-12, part divergent or decurved, part attenuated, slender, and 
pendulous. Branch leaves imbricated, ovate or ovato-lanceolate, 
the cells rhomboidal, curved, containing fibres, and with marginal 
pores. Perichztial bracts much larger, broad, and convolute. 
Capsule exserted, globose, with a shallow, convex lid. 
