THE GENERA OF MOSSES. 
137 
mum *) the genus of which is doubtful. It is not our inten- 
tion to state, under these generic characters, what we con- 
sider to be good species, or what merely varieties ; but we 
cannot refrain from expressing our opinion, that, notwith- 
standing the apparent striking difference between some of 
the Sphagna, and the peculiar structure that is exhibited 
in all the leaves of S. squarrosum, which we have examin- 
ed, it is not improbable, that at some future period the 
old Linnaean species may be again adopted. We cannot, 
in this place, do better than give Biiidel's observations at 
the end of the genus, in nearly his own words. 
" Genus Sphagnum inter omnia maxime naturale, pro- 
prio Marte stans, nec ulli alteri affine. Ramorum nempe 
ad caulis latera dispositione fasciculari aliis muscis alienis- 
siraa, foliis semper concavis, integerrimis, areolisque plus 
minusve trapeziformibus, a caeteris gentis nostrae generibus 
longe removetur. Unicam insuper speciem diceres, jam in- 
nuantibus Trevirano et Rohlingio, per varietates multas 
certos inter se limites non admittentes diductam. A ci/m- 
bifolio et enim, cui forte conjungenda compaetum et con- 
densatum, quippe quae non aliter quam ramulorum fasci- 
culis approximatis indistinctis ab eo recedunt, mediantibus 
tenello et patent^ contra Mohri assertionem qui transitum 
talem temere negat, ad squarrosum devenimus sese iterum 
cum capillifolio ex habitu arctius connecten^, quod a subur- 
iato et ericetortim vix specifice diversum, tandem in cuspi- 
datum mediante pentasticho abit. Hinc si leviora discri- 
mina a foliorum reticuli areolis majus minusve dilitatis aut 
* We have never observed this species in any of the herbariums abroad 
that we have visited, unless it be a plant that we received by the kindness 
of M. B. Delessert, from the collection of Palisot : this, however, which 
is nearly quite simple, of a pinkish hue, and has leaves broadly ovate and 
obtuse, we consider only a singular variety of ^S*. obtusi/olium^ 
