100 HEPATICtE, [Anthoceros. 



same texture and colour as the frond, varying much in dimensions ; the 

 largest and oldest about the size of mustard-seed, truncated at the top 

 and perforated ; the aperture entire at the margin. Within these at the 

 base, both in the smaller and larger perianths, are sometimes 2 — 5 ex- 

 tremely minute, linear, pistilliform bodies; at other times, one of these 

 is oblong, swollen and lengthened, exactly like the young germ en 

 of a Jungermannia. Again, much more rarely, I have found one of 

 these pistilliform bodies enlarged into a perfectly sphaerical form, tipped 

 with a short, slender style, the whole not larger than an eighth of the 

 perianth : the contents of so small a body I could not satisfactorily ascer- 

 tain, but they appeared, when pressed out, to consist of a pulpy sub- 

 stance. 



3. AnthoCeros. Linn. Anthoceros. 



Capsule pedunculated, linear, 2-valved, with a central colu- 

 mella to which the seeds are attached and arising from a tubular 

 perianth. {Muse. Brit. ed. 2. p. 216.) Name; «v0o ? , a flower, 

 and xggae?, a horn : from the horn-like fructification. 



1. A. punctdtus, Linn, (dotted Anthoceros); frond obovato- 

 oblong flattish waved and cut at the margin. Linn. Sp. Pi. 

 p. 1606. E. Bot. t. 1537. Muse. Brit ed. 2.p. 216. Lindenb. 

 Syn. Hepat.p. US.— Dill. Muse. I. 68./. I.— A. icevis, Linn. 

 Sp. PI. p. 1606. Schm. Ic. t. 19. Lindenb. Syn. Hepat. p. 112. 

 —A. major, Mich. Gen. t. l.f. 1. E. Bot.t. 1538.— Dill. Muse. 



um.f.z. 



Sides of ditches and water-courses, in very moist situations. Fr. Spring. 

 — Fronds from one-half to three-fourths of an inch long, procumbent, 

 often forming orbicular imbricated patches, radiating from the centre ; 

 each more or less obovato-oblong, plane or slightly waved above, the 

 extremities somewhat dichotomously divided into short, rounded seg- 

 ments, which are waved and broadly notched at the margin, sometimes 

 even laciniated, segments always obtuse. Texture between fleshy and 

 membranaceous, inclining to the former, generally of a darkish green 

 colour, paler at the margins. Cellules distinct, oblong, with a pore in 

 the centre : — there is no midrib, the fibrous radicles springing from 

 various parts of the under surface of the fronds; male and female fructi- 

 fication generally abundant on the same individual. Anthers exactly 

 sphaerical, shortly pedicellated, of a yellowish-orange colour, included in 

 cup-shaped, deeply and sharply laciniated receptacles, on the upper sur- 

 face of the fronds. The female fructifications, of which there are several 

 on each frond, appear first in the form of conical tubercles, similar to the 

 frond in colour and texture, and consisting in fact of the epidermis. In 

 a short time, these, which we have called perianths, attain the height of 

 2 lines, become cylindrical, opening at the mouth with a truncated, rather 

 jagged orifice; whence proceeds a linear, subulate, slightly curved capsule, 

 which rising about 2 inches and elevated on a succulent fruitstalk scarcely 

 longer than the perianth, bursts from the extremity into two narrow 

 linear valves, which are partially twisted round each other. The open- 

 ing of the capsule presents a central filament ov columella, equal in length 

 to the capsule, and covered with numerous roundish, opaque, brown 

 seeds, each of which is marked by lines, indicating its being composed 

 of 3 or 4 smaller bodies : — these are attached by means of short, simple 

 or forked, rather flat, brownish, semipellucid stalks, which have no ap- 

 pearance of a double spiral helix, as figured by Schmidel. 



