a. [f. SPHAGN-UM.]

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  1.  Of the nature of, consisting of, sphagnum.

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1828–32.  Webster (citing Bigelow), Sphagnous, pertaining to bog-moss, mossy.

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1846.  Dana, Zooph., iv. (1848), 64. Like the sphagnous moss of a peat-swamp, coral zoophytes continue growing at top.

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1868.  Rep. U.S. Commissioner Agric. (1869), 173. The annual moisture … would collect between the impervious clayey soil and its sphagnous covering.

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1888.  Pall Mall Gaz., 20 Aug., 12/1. A marsh lake—whose wide margins were one dense mass of trembling sphagnous moss.

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  2.  Producing, or abounding in, sphagnum.

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1845.  S. Judd, Margaret, I. v. 27. Their habitat is sphagnous places, what you call swamps.

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1853.  G. Johnston, Nat. Hist. E. Bord., 39. Sundew. In sphagnous bogs.

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