82 Rhodora [April 



Through the kindness of Professor Farlow it has been possible to 

 examine a portion of the type material from the Taylor herbarium. 

 On the original packet the following words are written: " Junger- 

 mannia microrkyncka Tayl. Mss. (Madotheca). Ohio: Sir W. -I. 

 Hooker. 1843." Apparently Taylor had little faith in his species, 

 for lie never published it formally, but it is cited (as a manuscript 

 species) among the synonyms of Madotheca PoreUa in the Synopsis 

 Hepaticarum. Stephaih was the first to give it adequate publication. 

 Among the characters which he emphasizes arc the following: the 

 small, slightly projecting and minutely crenulate mouth of the peri- 

 anth; the ovate-oblong lobes of the perichaetial bracts, rounded 

 at the apex; and the small triangular lobules, discrete almost to the 

 base. In .1/. Porclla hi' gives, as more or less contrasting characters: 

 the small, shortly rostrate, and minutely crenulate mouth of the peri- 

 anth; the oblong and obtuse lobes of the perichaetial bracts; and 

 the lanceolate lobules, discrete to about the middle. These differ- 

 ences, even if they were constant and accurately described, are so 

 slight that they would have but doubtful specific value. As a matter 

 of fact the type specimens, when compared with P. pinnata, do not 

 show the differences which Stephani brings out. The two plants are 

 essentially alike in all important respects, and there seems to be no 

 reason for considering M . microrkyncka a distinct species. The same 

 conclusion was reached by Underwood, who examined Taylor's type 

 many years ago and placed it under /'. pinnata. 



Mttller objects to the use of the specific name "pinnata" for the 

 present species and gives two reasons. First, because he considers it 

 disadvantageous to use so old a name for a plant which has been so 

 much confused even in recent times; and, second, because Linnaeus 

 could hardly have understood this plant under his Porclla pinnata on 

 account of its great rarity in Europe. These reasons are not very 

 convincing. In the first place, writers who have used the specific 

 name " pinnata" (such as Lindberg, Howe, Underwood, and Pearson) 

 have used it in' a very definite sense and' have based their use of the 

 name on the specimen in the Dillenian herbarium, which represents 

 the type of the Porclla pinnata of Linnaeus; and, in the second place, 

 Linnaeus cites the species from Pennsylvania only, the date of its 

 discovery in Europe being much later. 



4. Porella platypiiylla (L.) Lindb. Acta Soc. Sci. Fenn. 9: 339. 

 1869. JungermanniaplatypkyllaL.Sp. Plant. 1134. 1763. Antoiria 

 vulgaris Raddi, Mem. Soc. Sci. Modena 18: 19. />!. 2, f. I. 1818. 



