Vol. VI, No, 4.] BULLETIN OF THE TORREY Botanical Cuus. [New York, Apr., 1875, 
§ 21. Notes on the Anthocerotacee of North America, with De- 
scriptions of Several New Species, by C. F. Austin. 
{Names preceded by an asterisk (*) are provisional; being introduced, along with the 
others, for the purpose of calling the attention of collectors more directly to this most obscure 
family of Hepatice ; in the hope that it may lead to the collecting of more and enerally better 
specimens ; since it is absolutely impossible to come to any satisfactory conclusion concern- 
ing the species and forms that exist in this country, with the small amount of material now 
on hand.) 
ANTHOCEROTACEA, Lindb. in litt. 
Anthocerotee, Nees, 
Capsule dorsal, pod-like, mostly erect and bivalved, usually with 
stomata in its outer wall, with a filiform columella, tapering into a 
pedicel or often sessile, with a bulbous base. Involucre tubular, 
Perianth none. Calyptra rupturing early near the base and carried 
up on the apex of the capsule, crowned with a subsessile stigma. 
Spores flattish, more or less convexo-prismatic, either papillose or 
smooth. Elaters present, with or without fibres. Vegetation 
frondose; texture flaccid and more or less vesicculose. Epidermis 
and pores none. 
The family comprises three genera*; viz., Dendroceros, Blan- 
dovia and Anthoceros. So far as is known only the last one named 
occurs within our limits. The other two are tropical; however, 
Dendroceros may be looked for in the States bordering on the Gulf 
of Mexico, 
ANTHOCEROS, Linn. 
Fronds dark green or blackish, usually depressed, variously lobed 
and divided, of a peculiar lax and vesidculose texture, with a large 
green grain (chlorophy!) in each cell, and often with small blackish 
tubers or gemme in its substance, frequently glandularly thickened 
at the apex of the lobes, or in streaks along their middie (in the 
latter case the fronds are falsely nerved). Capsule linear or cylin- 
drico-oblong, 2-valved. Spores papillose or smooth, colored. 
Elaters in our species simple or branched, often geniculate, more or 
less heteromorphous, either destitute of fibres, or very imperfectly 
and obscurely fibrillose; (in some foreign species furnished with a 
single broad spiral band. 
§ Spores yellow : elaters usually also yellow, or with a yellowish tinge. 
1. Anthoceros levis, Linn.—Frond smooth and nearly plane 
above. Involucre 1—2 lines high, trumpet-shaped when dry, the 
mouth repand-toothed, often thickened, rarely scarious. Capsule 
pale brown or yellowish, 1—14 inches high ; the valves often much 
twisted in drymg. Spores rather small, nearly smooth, flattish, 
anguiar. Elaters yellowish, slender, variable in length, but always 
rather short, geniculate, flattish, often branched and som« what 
articulated.—A. flexivalvis, L. & Ig. ae 
Var. major, Aust. Hepat. Exsic. n. 123°.—A. Carolinianus, Ma.— 
* . hi i rises a few 8 es which have all the essential characters of 
‘Avion, ncnemen ef them in a reanced ares The characters upon which the genns is 
founded appear to be wholly gradal. It mae possibly rank as a sub-genus, provided a distinct 
line of division can be drawn between it and Anthoceros proper. 
