—73— 



in Bermuda, where it is the only species of Inophloea. It has not yet been found 

 in Mexico or Central America, though in South America it is a characteristic 

 and abundant species of the whole Andean region to Cape Horn, being the only 

 species of Inophloea in the region of the Magellan Straits. It is also of wide 

 distribution in Europe, Asia and Australia, in fact by far the most widely dis- 

 tributed species of Inophloea. Its characters are also uniform throughout 

 it range, "apart from the tendency to vary in the direction of 5". palustre. With- 

 in its North American range it may be sought under a variety of conditions 

 and will best be recognized in the field by its purplish red pigmentation. It is 

 dioicous, but occurs frequently with fruit. 



To what has been said of the individual species of Inophloea there may be 

 added that the corrugated condition of the inner walls of the cortical cells where 

 these overly the wood-cylinder as described for S. imhricatum and S. portori- 

 cense is entirely analogous to the "fringe-fibrils" of the inner walls of the hya- 

 line cells of the leaves where these overly the chlorophyll cells and that the two 

 are evidently merely different phases of one and the same phenomenon; further 

 that I was able to confirm Austin's statements about the habitat of S. portori- 

 cense by observations made during a short stay at Island Heights in New Jersey 

 in the early part of August 191 1. In the shallow pond just southeast of the 

 Pennsylvania Railroad station at Toms River vS. portoricense may be found in 

 abundance, submerged entirely or with the tops of the plants just reaching the 

 surface of the water. No 6'. imhricatum was noted in this locality, nor was 

 there any suggestion of forms varying in the direction of that species. The 

 water in which the plants grew was tepid or distinctly warm to the hand and 

 abundance of bog-iron ore accounts, at least in part, for the dark color the plants 

 usually show. Associated with the species were 5". cyclophyllum and S. Py- 

 laesii with occasional S. subsecundum. With these conditions so favorable 

 for southern species the narrow border of cranberry-bog (Vaccinium macro- 

 carpon) offered a decided contrast, the prevailing species being here 6". pulchrum, 

 which finds its southern limit in New Jersey, and S. magellanicum, a tuft of S. 

 papillosum being also found. It was here an easy matter to stand with one 

 foot in boreal and the other (wetter one) in subtropical Sphagnum. With 

 what has been said about this pond the reader may compare Austin's descrip- 

 tion^ of conditions in Manchester (now Lakehurst), N. J. and be assured that 

 watercourses in the pine-barrens of New Jersey constitute one of the best 

 localities for Sphagnum in North America. 



Phylogenetically the order of species in Inophloea should be the reverse 

 of that in the above notes. The reasons for regarding 6". magillanicum and the 

 collective S. papillosum and S. erythrocalyx as heading the line of development 

 are, apart from their much broader distribution, certain anatomical features. 

 In the first place the central position of chlorophyll cells in leaf-section appears 

 to be a primitive condition in Sphagnum generally, as shown by the morphologic 



1 Amer. Journ. of Science and Arts (Silliman's Journal), 2nd ser. 35: 252ff. 1863. 



