84 THE SPHAGNACE.E OR PEAT-MOSSES OF 
Var. y. plumosum, Nexs, Hscu. 
Submersed, slender, flaccid, elongated ; branches decurved, all 
uniform and divergent, with long, lanceolato-subulate, soft leaves. 
Perichztia elongated with distant leaves. 
Synon.—Sph. cuspidatum var. plumosum, NexEs, Hscu. St. Bry. Germ. p. 24, 
t. iv. f.9*. Bruip. Bry. Univ. i. p. 15. Scuimp. Torfm. p. 61, pl. xvi. 6; Synops. 
p. 676, et ed. 2, p. 832. Russow, Beitr. p. 60. 
Sph. cuspidatum var. mollissimum, Russow, Beitr. p. 61 (a dense, yellowish form). 
Sph. laxifolium var. serrulatum, SCHLIEP. in Verh. Z. B. Gesel. Wien, 1865, 
p- 396 (a form with the margins of leaf serrulate). 
Has.—In deeper water, rarely bearing fruit. 
Plants wholly submersed, elongated sometimes to a length of 
two feet, at others with the fascicles closely approximated and then 
resembling a tuft of conferve; the latter form has been found 
near Todmorden by the late J. Nowell, and is Russow’s var. 
mollissimum. 
Var. 8. dvevifolium, Linvs. 
Stems firm, 5-6 in. high, pale yellowish green; stem leaves 
short, ovate, obtuse, with a few irregular teeth at apex; cells 
fibrillose in the apical part, the marginal cells very narrow and 
elongated. Branches in close-set fascicles, short, ascending and 
divergent, arcuato-decurved from the middle, attenuated toward 
the points; the leaves subsecund when dry, spreading and imbri- 
cated when moist, short, ovate, somewhat oblique and unequal-sided, 
the apex truncate, 5-toothed. 
Synon.— Spf. curvifolium, Hunt, in Herb. suo. 
Sph. laricinum, SCHIMP. Synops. ed. 2, p. 845 (the Loch Kandor specimens). 
Sph. cuspidatum vax. brevifolium, LINDB. in lit. BraritHw. Sphag. Brit. Exs. n. 53. 
Hazs.—Deep bogs. 
England: Carrington Moss, Cheshire (Hunt). Scotland: Near Loch Kandor, 
Aberdeenshire (Hunt). 
This plant at first sight very much resembles a pale form of 
Sph. laricinum, but a microscopic examination soon shows us that 
it differs in structure from that species, and constitutes a very 
peculiar variety of S. cuspidatum, having both the stem leaves and 
branch leaves shorter than usual. The plant figured in Sullivant’s 
Icones Muse. Suppl. t. 2, as S. cusfidatum var. appears to stand 
midway between the present plant and the normal form of the 
species. 
