305 
St. John’s and Indian Rivers by Capt. Donnell Smith. It was also 
found in Cuba by Dr. Chas. Wright, and confounded with 4. devs 
in his Hepat. Cubenses. It is characterized by a subpellucid 
more or less nerved, subflabelliform often substipitate frond, with 
some of the perianths horizontal and more or less adnate with its 
upper surface. A. Ravenelit, Aust., was found from Middle Florida, 
to South Carolina. This species was originally described from 
rather immature specimens. 4. Lescurit, and A. Joorit, AUST., are 
more mature states of the same species. It is readily distinguished 
by its thick black fronds, very thick capsules and large spores. The 
green capsule is over a half line in thickness, but shrinks greatly in 
drying, and does not regain its usual size in soaking. 
Sphzrocarpus Californicus, 7. 54.—Dioica; plante humillime, 
cxspitose, suberecte; fronde substipitata profunde lobata, lobis 
sepe folioformibus, involucro oblongo vel subcylindrico breviter 
obtuse acuminulato, sporis S. Michelit. (S. Berterit, Ausr., Exsic. 
n. 138, non Biscu.)—California. 
Male and female plants usually (always?) growing together. 
Much like S. Michelit, BeRNH.; but the frond is somewhat stipitate, 
and the involucre is more cylindrical and subacuminulate. 
Lhallocarpus, LinpB.; Cryptocarpus, Aust. Capt. Donnell 
Smith has collected a fine lot of this plant, (Z. Curtisiz) in Florida. 
It is dicecious. The male frond is furnished with “ostioles’’ pre- 
cisely like some Ricctas. Mode of growth also as in Riccéa, in 
which genus it should probably be included as a subgenus. The 
adhering together in fours of the spores until long after maturity, as in 
Spherocarpus, appears to be the only character in which it is 
decidedly different from Riccéa.—I have examined many specimens 
of various species of iccia, both in the growing and in the pre- 
served state, searching long and carefully for the antheridia, without 
ever seeing them except in #. Watsoni, Aust., where they are both 
numerous and large, and are imbedded in the frond. I have seen 
the so-called ostioles only in 2. data, Tayu., R. Donnelit, Aust., and 
R. ( Thallocarpus) Curtisii. In all these they are easily seen without 
the aid of a lens.—In Sphecocarpus the antheridia are large and 
numerous, sessile, and enclosed (singly) in conical purplish in- 
volucres.—Riccia reticulata, SWARTZ., is certainly only the prothallus 
of some Fern.—Vittaria? Dr. Chas, Wright collected it on the 
trunks of Palms in Cuba, and some of his specimens are accom- 
panied by young fronds of the Fern proper,—some of them an 
inch or two long. Viétéaria linearis, in Florida, has a similar but 
much smaller prothallus, which somewhat resembles the young 
nerveless fronds of a Metsgeria. It is frequently met with on 
the trunks of the Palmetto, and is often accompanied by the 
young fronds of the Fern proper: in fact it appears to be always 
present among the rootlets of the mature fronds. A nearly similar 
prothallus, but rather suggestive of an Ameura, grows on the 
ground both in Florida and in Cuba, from which spring the fronds 
of some /Zymenophyllum. Dr. Lindberg, in Hepat, Hibern. (Act, 
Soc. Fenn. X, p. 472), records some valuable observations on these 
