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CONTRIBUTION FROM THE OSBORN BOTANICAL LABORATORY. 



THE CHILEAN SPECIES OF METZGERIA. 



Alexander W. Evans. 



Received November 10. 1922. Presented March 14, 1923. 



Species of Metzgeria form a conspicuous part of the hepatic flora 

 of Chile and the neighboring antarctic regions of South America. The 

 first member of the genus to be reported definitely from this general 

 area was the northern M. furcata (L.) Dumort., which was listed by 

 Hooker and Taylor in 1844 (8, p. 480) under the name Jungetmannia 

 furcata L. Their report was based on specimens collected by Hooker 

 during the voyage of the "Erebus " and "Terror," the locality being 

 given as St. Martin's Cove, "Cape Horn." Three years later (27, p. 

 445) they gave somewhat fuller details, citing the species from Hermite 

 Island, Cape Horn, and adding that it occurred there not only in the 

 typical form but also as a var. pubescens, which they considered the 

 same as the northern Jungermannia pubescens Schrank, usually known 

 even at that early date as M. pubescens (Schrank) Raddi. In fact 

 Montagne (13, p. 214) had already reported M. pubescens from the 

 Straits of Magellan, on the basis of specimens collected by Jacquinot. 

 The Synopsis Hepaticarum (6, pp. 504, 505), in 1846, accredited M. 

 furcata to Cape Horn on the authority of Hooker and Taylor and M. 

 pubescens to the Straits of Magellan on the authority of Montagne, but 

 added nothing to the statements of these earlier writers. Four years 

 later Montagne (14, p. 297) designated M. furcata as a widely dis- 

 tributed species in Chile, without giving definite localities, basing 

 his statement on collections made by Gay. 



In 1877 Lindberg published his Monographia Metzgeriae (10), in 

 which he made a systematic use of anatomical features in characteriz- 

 ing the species and thus placed the study of the genus on a more 

 scientific basis. Although the authors of the Synopsis recognized nine 

 species in their treatment of Metzgeria, five of these really belong to the 

 genus Riccardia, thus leaving a residue of only four species. Lindberg 

 increased the number to eleven. Of the forms occurring in the Chilean 

 region he was able to study some of the material collected by Hooker 

 and by Jacquinot. He showed that Hooker's specimens of " J. furcata 

 var. pubescens" and Jacquinot's specimens of "Metzgeria pubescens". 



