5T9 - [ 2092 ]
S P H A G N U M cuspidatuni.
Long-leaved. F l o a t in g B o g -m o s s .
CR YP TOGA MI A Musci.
Gen. Ch a e . CapW sessile, without a fringe. V e i t cut
round, its base remaining on the base o f the capsule.
A n th e r s surrounded with a ring.
Spec. Char. Branches spreading rath er downwards.
Leaves lanceolate, long-pointed, waved, lax.
Syn. Sphagnum cuspidatum. H offm . Germ. v. 2 . 22.
Sm. F I . B r i t . 1147. B h rh . Crypt. 251. T u rn .
M u s e . H ib . 6.
S. palustris mollis deflexi, squamis capillaceis, varietas-
fluitans. D i l l . M u s e. 244. t. 3 2 . f 2 . B.
M o s t usual in mountainous countries, but Mr. Turner
gathered our specimen near Yarmouth. It grows floating in
pools and rivulets, bearing capsules in the middle of summer.
For one of these, being of rare occurrence, we have had recourse
to a German specimen.
The colour is a pale greenish grey, like the more common
species, t. 1405, 1 4 0 6 ; but the stems are much more elongated
than in those, from their floating mode of growth. The
branches are loosely directed downward, and more or less
pointed. Leaves lanceolate, flattish, loosely spreading,
lengthened out into an awlshaped p oint; their edges wavy,
their substance elegantly reticulated, most like those of
S . capillifolium, t. 1406. Capsule ovate, short, at length
bell-shaped, on a long stalk which is thickened at the summit
as in the other species. It must be observed however that
this is a real flower-stalk; not a fruit^stalk, elevating the germen
above the base or receptacle of the flower, as in all other
known genera of mosses. The learned Mohr and Weber have
remarked that the capsule is truly sessile in Sphagnum, and in
that alone.