o f the branches, beautiful yellow-green colour, and leptodermous
capsules ; and it also often grows intermixed with other species.
T h e name tenellum was first applied to this species, we are informed
by Professor Lindberg, by Lhrhart, as indicated by a specimen
in the St. Petersburg herbarium, and the same species
received the same name from Persoon, as proved by a specimen
from him, preserved in Swartz’s herbarium, and a description
is given by Bridel in his Mantissa Muscorum (18 19) ; but the
plant does not appear to have been well understood by the older
authors, as small forms o f various species appear under the name
tenellum in their herbaria ; that figured as tenellum in the Bryologia
Germanica evidently belongs to Sph. acutifolium. Bridel also
admits Sph. molluscum into the Bryol. Universa, but he only copied
the description o f Bruch without having seen the plant.
Var. longifolium, Lin d b .
Plants shorter, more densely tufted, with crowded branches, and
o f a lurid or dingy green colour. Stem leaves longer, the hyaline
cells fibrillose throughout. Branches more attenuated, with longer,
narrower, and more pointed leaves.
S y n o n .— B r a i t h w . Sphag. Brit. Exsic. n. 12.
Hkb.— F inland: Helsingfors (Lindberg). England: Stansfield Moor, Tod-
morden (Nowell, 1846); Cam Galva Moor, Plymouth (Curnow, i86r); Staveley,
Westmoreland (Barnes, 1878).
This has a different aspect from the typical state o f the plant
owing to its colour being usually o f a dirty w h ite ; it also appears
to be much rarer than the ordinary plant.
Va r. y. fluitans, Schimp.
V e r y long and slender, without any pendent branches, all the
leaves rem o te ; perichaetia scattered throughout the stem, pseudopodia
v e ry long.
S y n o n .— S c h im p . Torfm. t. xii. f. 6, 7, 8; Synops. Muse. p. 682.
Sph. molluscum var. immersum, S c h im p . Synops. Muse. ed. 2, p. 846 (1876).
Hab.— In stagnant water of the Marais des Ponts in the Swiss Jura (Lesquereux).
6. Sphagnum laricinum, S p ru c e .
Pl. VII. AND VIII.
Dioicous, yellowish or pale brownish g re en ; the stem with
2-3 layers o f cuticular cells. Stem leaves small, ovato-triangular,
minutely fimbriate at apex. Branch leaves subsecund, recurved
at point, ovate, pointed, 3-5 toothed at apex ; hyaline cells with
numerous minute pores, chlorophyllose cells central, enclosed b y the
hyaline, compressed. Perichætial bracts oblong, obtuse, emarginate.
S y n o n .— Sph. laricinum. S p r u c e , M ss. 1847. W i l s . Bryol. Brit. p. 23, ut
synon. (1855). A n g s t r . in O f v . Vet. Ak. Forh. xxi. p. 197 (1864). L in d b . in
Act. Soc. Sc. Fenn. x. p. 263 in not. et p. 280(1872), et in Notis. ur Sallsk. Fn. FI.
Fenn. Forh. xiii. p. 401 (1874). S u l l i v . Icon. Muse. Suppl. p. 17, t. 8 (1875).
S c h l i e p h . in Verh. d. k . k. Zool. Bot. Gesells. in Wien, 1865, p. 408. H o b k .
Synop. Br. Moss. p. i86 (1873). S c h im p . Synops. ed. 2, p. 845 (1876). B r a i t h w .
Sphag. Brit. Exsic. n. 13 (1877).
Sph. subsecundum, C. Müll. Syn. Muse. ii. p. 539 (1851); spec, bor.-amer.
Sph. contortum, Sull. Mosses Un. St. p. 11, n. 3 (1856).
Sph. negledum, A n g s t r . in Ö f v . Vet. Ak. Forh. xxi. p. 201 (1864). L i n d b . in
Journ. L. Soc. xi. p. 468 (1870). H a r t m . Skand. FI. ed. ro, ii. p. 124 (1871).
A u s t . Muse. Appal, p. 7 , n. 26 ((870). B r a i t h w . in Monthl. Micr. Journ. Oct.
1872, p. 157, t. 30.
Sph. curvifolium, W i l s . Mss. H u n t , in Mem. Lit. Phil. Soc. Manch. 3rd ser.
iii. p. 233 (1867).
Dioicous ; in lax tufts, pale yellow green, sometimes tinged with
rufous above, sometimes olivaceous. Stems 4-8 in. high, simple or
bipartite, pale, the peripheral layers incrassate, rufous; cuticular
cells in 2-3 layers, rectangular, without fibres or pores. Stem
leaves reflexed, broadly ovate-oblong, moderately auricled, concave,
narrowed upward, the apex obtuse and ve ry minutely
fringed ; margin with a border o f extremely narrow cells ; the
hyaline cells o f the upper third of le a f fibrose, with a few minute
pores, the rest empty or with a few faintly fibrose at base.
Ramuli 3-4 in a fascicle, 1-2 divergent, arched downward at the
extremity, the others appressed to stem ; their cuticular cells large,
the retort cells cylindric, without any projecting neck.
Leaves o f divergent branches when moist la xly imbricated, when
dry erecto - patent, subsecund and subfalcate, somewhat glossy,
ovate-oblong below, lanceolate-acuminate, the two sides somewhat
unequal, ve ry concave, the margin involute in the upper third,
bordered by three rows of extremely narrow elongated cells ; apex
subacute, with 3-5 minute indistinct teeth ; hyaline cells serpentine,
elongated, spirally fibrose, with ve ry few small marginal pores ; chlorophyllose
cells narrowly elliptic, central, enclosed by the hyaline,
strongly compressed.
Fruit seated in the coma, moderately exserted, perichætial
bracts oblong, obtuse, scarcely bordered, innermost large, convolute,
emarginate, the hyaline cells rather small, lower narrow,
upper suboblong with few fibres.
Male amentula short, subclavate, greenish brown, the bracts