-83- 



Its macroscopic appearance is so distinctive that in regions where it occurs it is 

 generally collected, even by collectors not especially familiar with Sphagnum 

 species. These macroscopic features are, as in most cases, easier to recognize 

 than to describe. It shows almost always more of a brown pigmentation than 

 S. cuspidatum does, giving a snuff-colored effect, which may be weakened by 

 submergence and lack of exposure to sunlight, but is usually different from the 

 green to washed out whitish of S. cuspidatum. With much variation in size it 

 tends to have broader leaves and a more robust appearance than typical 5. 

 cuspidatum, while its leaves lack the undulations more or less evident in the dried 

 state of var. Torreyi of the latter. In fact its general aspect would much sooner 

 lead to confusion with forms of such species as S. Lindhergii and 5. pulchrum, from 

 which however it is more easily separated microscopically. Specimens which 

 seem to lack the characteristic leaf-pores will usually, if looked over carefully, 

 show them to be present, at any rate in some parts of the tuft. They are peculiar 

 not only in their large size, but in the fact that many of them, even if not large 

 enough to occupy nearly the whole width of the empty cell, are at any rate placed 

 quite midway between the walls, not in the corners or elsewhere near either wall, 

 as is usual in Sphagnum species. 



The history and distribution of this species in North America I have in 

 considerable part given in a note of several years ago.^ It was first collected 

 by Peck at Sand Lake, N. Y. in 1867 and called by Austin' ' 5. /ar/ciwwm Spruce. 

 Sullivant'^ figured it accurately as an unnamed variety of S. cuspidatum and 

 denied its identity with S. laricinum Spruce, which has generally been considered 

 a form of S. subsecundum in its broader sense. Warnstorf at one time confused 

 5. Dusenii with S. mendocinum, as will be noted in the discussion of the latter 

 species. Its southern distribution so far as known at present, and it may be 

 regarded as probably final east of the Mississippi, is represented by points in 

 northwestern Connecticut, New York, Michigan, Wisconsin, the Rocky Mt. 

 region of British Columbia, with a station reported from Cape Nome, Alaska. 

 This last station I had not noted in my earlier treatment, but attention was called 

 to it later by Frye.^^ It is possible that west of the Mississippi stations will be 

 found somewhat further southward, but it is not a species extending to the 

 full southern limits of glaciation. It may be looked for in any favorable locality 

 further northward and, though found in very wet places, is by no means confined 

 to the coastal region, but is one of the few species probably more frequent inland. 

 In Europe it extends southward to the Alps and in Asia is known from Siberia. 



23. Sphagnum mendocinum Sullivant & Lesquereux, 1874. This species 

 was named from Mendocino City or County, California, which represents its 

 type-locality and at the same time the southern limit of its range. It is our 



^ Bryologist, XIX, 37. 1916. 



10 Musci Appalach., 8. 1870. 



11 Icones Muscorum, Suppl., 11, Plate 2. 1874. 



12 Univ. of Calif. Public, in Bot.. II, 313. 1907, 



13 Bryologist, XXI, 41. 1918. 



