1896.1 M'Ardi.K. — Clonbrock Expedition, Mosses & Hepatics. 237 



parts of the estate ; it luxuriates on the trunks of the huge 

 Beech-trees which dot the verdant lawn, and in the woods 

 adjacent to the bogs, on almost every tree. 



Out of fourteen species oiLejeunea known to grow in Ireland 

 the number of species collected at Clonbrock is very small. 

 They are curious little plants in their structure and habits, 

 and love the moist warm glens, and tell of climatal conditions 

 in as marked a manner as the rare flowering plants do. 

 Amongst some of the liverworts that were remarkable by iheir 

 absence I may mention Lophocolca heterophylla. L. bidentata 

 was very common, but the former is a distinct plant, and I 

 searched for it in vain on the decayed logs. It differs from 

 the latter in having some of the leaves bidentate, others with 

 the apex plane or slightly obtuse, and above all in having 

 paroecious inflorescence, i.e., the antheridia are in the axils of 

 the leaves just beneath the perianth. By this character it is 

 well separated from L. bidentata, which has the antheridia in 

 spikes or amentae. 



Cephalozia sphagni was abundant on all the bogs, but no 

 specimen of the rare C deymdata was found, which grows so 

 abundantly on the Hill of Howth, and Corslieve Mountain, Co. 

 Mayo, also sparingly on Bear Island ; these are the only 

 localities known in Ireland. The range of C sphagni is pro- 

 bably wider than that of any other species belonging to this 

 singular family of plants. It abounds in the north temperate 

 zone, and luxuriates in the hot forest plains of the equator; it 

 is always found on living plants of Sphagmcm, Leucobryum, 

 &c. C. denudata, on the contrar}^ is found mostly on decaying 

 vegetable matter, such as rotting logs, peat, &c. ; and is a 

 plant of the hills. C. sphagni is found on the plains, and 

 rarely at high elevations. Cephalozia curvifolia, one of the 

 prettiest of the genus, reported from Kylemore, was not to be 

 found. I searched the drains and moist banks for an}^ species 

 of the curious genus Riccia, but without success. One of the 

 commonest plants amongst the frondose section was Metzgeria 

 conjtigata, which was first collected at O'Sullivan's Cascade, 

 Killarney, in 1873, by Professor Lindberg, who pointed out its 

 remarkable autoecious character, i.e., its having the antheridia 

 on one branch of the thallus, and the calyptra which contains 

 the capsule and spores on a separate branch of the thallus, of 

 the same plant ; by this character it is separated from all the 



