190 
FLORA OF MOUNT DESERT. 
Class II. BRYOPHYTA. 
Division I. MUSCI; MOSSES. 
Order I. SPHAGNACE^. Peat Mosses. 
List prepared by Edward L. Band, assisted greatly by Edwin 
Faxon and Prof. Daniel C. Eaton, and arranged mainly in ac¬ 
cordance with tbe writings of Dr. Carl Warnstorf, of Jleuruppin, 
Germany. 
The plants catalogued in the following list have been col¬ 
lected mostly by Edwin Faxon and Edward L. Band ; the 
determinations are by Dr. Carl Warnstorf. In view of the 
great difficulty of finding descriptions of the various species 
and varieties, it has been thought wise to give freely refer¬ 
ences to Lesquereux and James’s “Mosses of Korth America,” 
and to Dr. Warnstorf’s articles on Korth American Sphagna, 
to be found in Coulter’s Botanical Gazette, Vol. XV., in the 
numbers for the months of June, August, September, and Oc¬ 
tober, 1890,— both of which works can be consulted with little 
trouble. In cases, furthermore, where descriptions are not 
there given, they have been either translated or specially prel 
pared for this list by Prof. Eaton and Mr. Faxon. It has 
not seemed best to include forms and suhforms herein, since 
most of them have little value except for the critical stu¬ 
dent. Very many of them are, however, represented in the 
Mt. Desert Herbarium. On the other hand, all varieties are 
given, without regard to the distinctions on which they are 
founded. The value, however, of most of the so-called color 
varieties is very doubtful, since careful observations seem to 
prove beyond question that the color of Sphagnum varies greatly 
with the season. It is even a matter of doubt whether a given 
plant of any species may not quickly vary through tlje influence 
of temporary external conditions, assuming at one time the form 
of one variety, at another time the form of another. This doubt¬ 
ful value of varieties of Sphagnum furnishes an additional reason 
for the exclusion of mere forms and sub-forms from a local cata¬ 
logue of plants. 
