Male amentula fusiform, subclavate, ochraceous ; the bracts
ovate, acuminate.
H a b .— Open moorlands, wet heaths, and spongy mountain bogs. Fr. July.
Europe and North America from the plains to the mountain region ; frequent.
Professor Lindberg has satisfactorily settled the nomenclature
o f both Sph. cuspidatum, E h r h . and Sph. intermedium, H o ffm .,
from an examination of original specimens o f both authors preserved
at St. Petersburg ; Hoffmann’s description is otherwise far too brief
for correct determination, and his var. /3 is to be referred to Sph.
acutifolnim, E h r h .
Professor Schimper at first united his plant with the following
species, as Sph. cuspidatum, E h r h . , regarding the present as the
type and the other as a submersed variety, and moreover described
them as monoicous. T h e habit, texture, and general facies o f the
two are so dissimilar, that they may generally be distinguished
without difficulty. T h e chief characters to be noted in Sph. inter-
medmm are the pendent branches quite concealing the stem, the
indistinct cuticular cells, the branch leaves undulated and more or
less squarroso-recurved at point when dry, the broadly oblong,
apiculate, more densely areolate perichætial bracts, the much
shorter cells in the border o f the stem leaves, and the pale yellow
spores.
T h e plant varies greatly in height and stoutness, as well as in
colour ; the latter is sometimes pale green above and white below,
but in the majority o f cases it is yellowish green and often with
more or less o f a golden yellow or fulvous tint, especially in the
comal branches, and in this form it may possibly be mistaken for
Sph. Lindbergii, while the green state is on the other hand quite as
likely to be taken for Sph. strictum.
Var. ß. riparium (Â n g s t r .) , Lind b.
Plants robust, 9 -18 in. high, deep dull green. Capitulum large,
with numerous ve ry long drooping branches, all gradually attenuated
from the middle. Stem with the cuticular cells v e ry indistinct.
Stem leaves large, elongato-triangular, the apex obtuse
and toothed, or lacerate, or rounded and more or less fimbriate.
Branch leaves closely imbricate, ovato-lanceolate, recurved at
apex when dry, the point elongated, consisting o f flexuose chlorophyllose
cells alone without any fibrillose.
,1
S y n o n .— .55/1. riparnm, A n g s t r . Ofv. Vet. Ak. Förh. xxi. p. 198 (1864).
K l in g g . in Sehr, der K. Phys. Oik. Gesel. zu Königs. 1872, p. 6.
Sph. cuspidatum var. majus et var. speciosum, Russow, Beitr. Kennt. Torfm.
p. 57 (1865). M i l d e , Bryol. Siles. p. 384.
Sph. K l i n g g r a f f , in Sehr, der K. Phys. CEk. Gesel. zu Königs.
1 8 7 2 , p . s .
Sph. cuspidatum v a r . h.fallax, K l i n g g . 1. c . p . 7.
Sph. spectahile, S c h im p . S y n o p s . e d . 2, p . 8 3 4 ( 1 8 7 6 ) .
Sph. ohtusum, W a r n s t o r f , in Botan. Zeit. 1 8 7 7 , p. 4 7 8 .
Sph. intermedium var. riparium, L in d b . B r a i t h w . Sphag. Brit. Exsic. n. 49.
H a b .— Deep moorland ditches, more or less immersed.
E u r o p e .— Scandinavia: In Upland and Westrobothnia; Grycsbo, in Dalecarlia
(Lindberg); Ostergothland, in Sweden (Dusen); Finland, Jurva (Simming), and
Kajana (Brotherus); Snasen Vatten, in Norway (Hartman). Germany: Labiau;
Iserwiese, in the Riesengebirge (Limpricht); Heiligen-Geist-See, near Arnswalde,
in Neumark (Warnstorf); Stuhm and Ibenhorst, in Prussia (Klinggraff); Silesia
(Milde); sparingly in Livland, Estland, and Courland (Russow). England: Wool-
ston Moss, Cheshire (Wilson); Old Trafford Moor, Manchester (Hunt).
T h is fine plant has several peculiarities which almost entitle it
to rank as a sub-species, notably the areolation o f the point o f the
branch leaves, free from hyaline cells. When fully developed, it
is one o f the noblest o f the genus, and the long drooping branches
are v e ry p r e t ty ; the stem leaves vary somewhat in their points,
being occasionally deeply lacerated, at other times nearly entire.
It is to be feared the Manchester locality has now been planted
with bricks and mortar.
Var. y. pulchrum, L in d b .
Plants robust, densely tufted, with crowded fascicles, yellow
green often with a golden fulvous tinge. Stem more rigid, with
the cuticular cells more d is tin c t; stem leaves acute and usually
contracted suddenly at apex into a minute recurved apiculus, the
hyaline cells more or less fibrillose in the upper third o f leaf.
Ramuli short, ascending or divergent, dense-leaved.
S y n o n .— B r a i t h w . Sphag. Brit. Exsic. n. 48.
H a b .— In deep bogs on the northern peat-moors.
E u r o p e .— Carrington Moss, Cheshire (Hunt, 1863); Wheeldale Moor, Goathland,
Yorkshire (Anderson); Eowlshaw Moss and Broad Gate Bog, Staveley, Westmoreland
(Stabler). Sweden: Hunneberg Mountain (Lindberg).
T h is beautiful plant when growing in large masses has a fine
effect, and the strong dense-leaved branches present a marked
contrast to the laxer forms of the species. It may be at once
known by the fibrils in the upper part o f the stem leaves, and the
mode in which they terminate in a little contracted hollow point.
G