20 CONNECTICUT GEOL. AND NAT, Hist. SuRVEY. [Bull. 
proceeds.” The valves, as they separate, soon become dry and 
black, and the columella appears like a fine hair projecting 
from the open capsule: The gametophyte covered over with 
sporophytes often presents the appearance of a tuft of fine 
grass. 
The structure of the sporophyte in the Anthocerotales is so 
peculiar that Howe separated the order from the Hepatice 
and made of it a distinct subclass, to which he gave the name 
‘Anthocerotes. He therefore divided the Bryophytes into three 
subclasses; Hepatice, Anthocerotes, and Musci. In this 
procedure he is followed, provisionally at least, by Campbell, 
but European writers continue to use the term Hepatice in 
the old sense. 
THE SPHAGNALES. 
The Sphagnales or Peat Mosses comprise the single genus 
Sphagnum. They are well represented in Connecticut, and 
include some of our largest and most conspicuous Bryophytes. 
The peat mosses are occasionally found on wet rocks or banks, 
but are most at home in bogs, where they sometimes grow sub- 
merged but more frequently rise above the surface of the 
water. In favorable localities they form dense and extensive 
golonies. Under these circumstances the stems are upright and 
afford one another mutual support. No rhizoids are developed 
except when the plants are very young. The branching is 
always monopodial, the branches arising in fascicles of from 
three to eight. The fascicles are numerous, and the branches 
appear densely crowded at the tips of the plants because the 
elongation of the stem is at first very slow. In older parts 
the fascicles become more separated. The branches are of 
three types:— spreading branches, which remain simple and 
are limited in growth; pendent branches, which also remain 
simple and limited in growth, but which grow downward close 
to the stem and form a sort of loose covering around it; erect 
branches, which are finlimited in growth and give rise to 
spreading and pendent branches of their own. These erect 
branches are only occasionally produced, and, since they repeat 
the stem in all respects, apparently arise by forking. 
The leaves are arranged in five longitudinal rows, although 
