54 IIEPATIC/E. [Targionia 



1. H. irrujua. The female receptacle, somewhat plane 

 above, scaly beneath. Marchantia irrigua Wilson. Hooker's 

 Enrj. Flor. v. 5, part 1, p. 106. 



In warm rocky recesses in the sides of streams in shaded situations at 

 Blackwater Bridge, near Dunkerron, 1820. At Turk cascade near Kil- 

 larney ; iMa^lumabo Glen, near Brandon Mountain ; and at Ballinhas- 

 sig Glen, near Cork, Mr. W. Wilson, who first published it in the Eng- 

 lish Flora. At Altadore, County of Wicklow, Mr. G. S. Gough. 

 Fronds from 1 to 5 inches long, nearly an inch wide, procumbent, 

 membranaceous, bilobed, the margins of the lobes raised, slightly un- 

 dulate, roundish. The frond is of a lively green, pellucid, without 

 pores, (but apparently in their place) there occur on the lower as well 

 as upper surface branches from the great central and longitudinal 

 nerve, which after running for a short space nearly parallel with the 

 nerve, diverge and branch and form anastomoses. This is scarcely to 

 be observed in dried specimens. As pores are wanting, in this genus of 

 the Marchantieae, on the upper surface, so likewise no scales are ob- 

 servable on the inferior. Below, the usual whitish simple, jointless root- 

 lets are thickly set along the nerve. There are no set/phi but as in 

 Fegatella the buds issue as flat discs of a lighter green from between 

 the terminating lobes of the frond. The fructification is commonly 

 dioicous, sometimes monoicous and not very rarely androgynous as ob- 

 served in Marchantia androgyna. In this last case the anthers ap- 

 pear effsete and to have discharged their pollen long before the maturity 

 of the seeds. The male Receptacle is flat above, granulated, circular, 

 with a depressed centre, hemispherical beneath, carnose, greenish, at 

 length dusky, near the margins especially beset with short straight, 

 rigid, whitish hairs. On the upper surface the ovate erect anthers 

 open, and if squeezed, exude minute oleaginous globules. At the junc- 

 tion of the peduncle to the receptacle a few linear scales of the indu- 

 sium remain adhering ; the peduncle seldom exceeds a diameter of the 

 receptacle in length ; it is succulent, pellucid, greenish below, dusky 

 above with two grooves containing bundles of fibres like the rootlets as 

 in Marchantia. The female Receptacle is at first quite covered by 

 the recurved scales of the indusium, and infertile receptacles may be 

 seen in this state at all seasons. The fertile alone are upraised on pe- 

 duncles and are far larger, with a convex rugged surface above, their 

 margins elevated, divided beneath into oblong convex, carnose loculi, 

 beset with short, straight, rigid whitish bristles. The locidi open by a 

 short vertical fissure. The capsule which within the calyptra takes 6 

 or 8 months for its full development, at length globose supported on a 

 short pellucid pedicell protrudes to light, bursts by 4 — G unequal 

 lacinice, leaving the ruptured remains of the calyptra in the loculus ; 

 but no calyx exists. The seeds are angulato-rotundate, dark brown. 

 The spiral filaments elongated, slender, but little twisted, marked mi- 

 nutely with a double helix. The peduncle of the female receptacle 

 has two grooves containing rootlets, is succulent, greenish, semipellucid, 

 curved, to its summit remains of the indusium adhere. The odour of 

 this plant is strong and very agreeable, and has adhered to blotting 

 paper for upwards of two years, being emitted by the application of 

 heat, but not quite expelled. 



b. Targionia, Micheli. 

 Male Receptacle in a bivalved terminal loculus, >c^\\e: Common 



