130 



The Naturalist. 



2. SjjJiagmm sub-hicolor, Hampe. " Flora," 1880, p. 440. 



According to my own view, both these last species should be joined 

 with the typical cymbifolium, for no' anatomical distinction can be 

 shown to justify their separation. 



There can be no doubt that all these plants belong to one common 

 type ; meanwhile it does not appear to me practical, at present, to press 

 these different forms — S. Austmi, S. jjapillosum, and S. medium, as 

 varieties into one collective species. 



I must here add that I approve of what Russow says in his 

 Bietragen, third thesis" : — " Species consumenten suffer more than 

 species producenten." 



Besides, good species become more easily forgotten in time, if they 

 are hastily degraded into varieties by monographists and florists. 



The beginner applies himself at first, as a rule, to the species, and 

 lays less value upon the varieties; therefore varietaten-producenten 

 generally get less sympathy. For this reason it happens that many 

 feel themselves called upon to set up varieties without taking notice of 

 those already existing. So, a compilation of all the already discrimi- 

 nated varieties of Sphagnum should be made, which would form an 

 important series, and whose recognition and arrangement according to 

 the law of priority would form a difficult task. 



On the other hand, there are also forms, local deviations, and 

 conditions of developement which have frequently been denoted as 

 varieties, which have no claim whatever to rank as such. Amongst 

 these are SpJiagnum jimbriatum var. compactum, Warnst. I.e. p. 115, 

 uiDon which the author himself remarks, "in nothing is it to be 

 distinguished from the typical form except by its crowded growth." 

 Further, S. cymbifolium, var. pulvinatum, Warnst. I.e. p. 137, is the 

 young state of S. cymbifolium ; this last Schimper describes in detail 

 in his " Monograph," p. 14, § 6. The plant upon which this 

 variety is based I have for years collected myself in the I.e. quoted 

 station. The short stems which terminate with branched tops are 

 clothed with modified branch-leaves, and the stem bark consists of one 

 layer of cells ; and it is only here and there that another tangential 

 waU is found in the bark. 



Schliephacke, in his " Beitragen zur Kenntniss der Sphagna", page 

 20, speaks at length upon these pseudo-stem leaves of SpJiagnam rigidum, 

 and particularly notes that the normal stem-leaves have not got the 

 characteristic auricles. Similar conditions of developement are also 

 those swollen, vermicular, simple, or irregularly-branched stem forma- 

 tions which I have mentioned in the " Krypt fl. von Schl." I. p. 22 1, 



