5-ranted, round, ovate, or lanceolate, very concave or even convolute.
Inflorescence monojcious or dioecious. Male flowers
(antheridia) borne upon clavate and catkin-like generally colored
branches, solitary at the side of each leaf, globose or ovoid,
pedicellate. Female flowers (archegonia) generally 3 or 4, at
first sessile in a hud-like involucre terminating a short branch,
one only perfecting fruit and forming a capsule, which is at
length raised upon a kind of pedicel (pseudopodium), formed
by the gradual elongation of the base (vaginule) and covered
by large perichaitial leaves. Capsule globose, operculate with a
convex or nearly flat lid, the orifice naked (without peristome
or annulus). Calyptra irregularly lacerate and adhering to the
vaginule. Spores of two kinds, tetrahedral macrospores, and
polyhedral microspores, the latter many times the smaller.
On germination the macrospores first produce a thin prothallium,
either filamentose in water or expanded in a kind of net
work upon the ground, upon which leaf-huds are afterwards
formed.
Like tlie Andrexaceai, the Sphagnacece differ much from the true
Mosses. In their mode of germination, the first evolution of the plant,
and the form of the antheridia, they are related to the caulescent Ilepaticm.
The structure of the stem, the imperfect calyptra, the organization of the
capsule, and the two kinds of spores are without analogy among either
the true Mosses or the Hepaticx. The Order consists of only the follow-
ino- -»enus For more detailed descriptions and full synonymy reference
may°he made to Schimper’s Torfmoose, Braitliwaite’s Sphagnacem or
Peat-Mosses of Europe and North America, Lindberg’s Europas och
Nord Amerilcas Ilvitmossor, and Husnot’s Sphagnologia Europwa.
1. SPHAGNUM, Dill. (PL I.)
Character that of the Order.
§ 1. A cuta. Branchdeaves erect: ducts forming part o f the
concave tipper surface, triangular in cross-section, the portion
included between the utricles being wedge-form, the
free surface convex: stem-leaves large, bordered by narrow
and flexuous hyaline cells ; their utricles rarely fibrillose,
mostly empty.
1. S. a cu tifo lium , Ehrh. MouoBcious, green or more generally
purplish ; cortical zone of the stems a triple layer of cells
destitute of pores ; branches in fascicles of 3 to 5, spreading,
one or two of them pendent: stem-leaves ovate or Ungulate, erose
or dentate at the apex, erect, the cells near the apex with a few
slender fibrils or none, rarely porose ; branch-leaves deeply concave,
ovate-lanceolate, tapering to a truncate point, the upper
lanceolate and subulate, all fibrillose, porose, and narrowly margined
; perichiBtial leaves oblong, gradually acuminate, siuuose-
dentate at the recurved apex, the cells irregular and empty :
capsule long-pedicellate : spores ferruginous : male aments generally
red. — PI. Crypt. Exsic. n. 72 ; Sohim]). Torfm. 50, 1.13 ;
Braithw. Sphag. 66, t. 18-20. S. nemoreum. Scop.; Lindberg,
Sphag. 52. S. capillifolium, Iledw., in part.
Var. p u rp u re um , Schimp. Plants purple ; the capitulum
dense, suhspherical: stem-leaves fibrillose.
Var. fu s c um , Schimp. Plants rust-color, in very compact
tufts; branches closely incurved, pale at the apex.
Ha s . Very common, in open or shaded bogs, in valleys or on mountains.
Many 6ther varieties eonld be described: var. confertum, intermedium,
androbustum, Austin; patulum and defiexum, Schimper; quinquefarium,
Lindb.; elegans, Braithw., e tc .; the plants differing generally to some extent
in their aspect according to their special habitat.
2. S. ru b e llum , Wils. Very much like the last, from which
it differs in its dioecious inflorescence, more slender and very
soft stems, shorter and more obtuse oval-oblong branch-leaves
3-toothed at apex, and broad obtuse stem-leaves with utricles
bipartite and sometimes fibrillose. — Bryol. Brit. 19, t. 60;
Schimp. Torfm. 70, t. 20. /S', acutifolium, var. rubellum,
Russ.; Braithw. Sphag. 69, t. 19.
H a e . New Brunswick (Fowler). Bare or rarely observed in this
country.
3. S. s tr ic tum , Lindb. Dioecious, robust, yellowish-green ;
stems long, solid, with 3 or 4 cortical layers of porose cells ;
branches 3 to 5, curved and deflexed, two of them ^ pendent:
stem-leaves large, erect, lingulate-spatulate, erose-laciniate at the
truncate apex,Troadly margined and slightly appendiculate at
base, with empty cells; branch-leaves erect-spreading, ovate-
lanceolate, subulate at the top of the branches; cells closely
fibrillose, with numerous pores ; perichsetial leaves oblong or