MutiCALKS.J 



RICCIACEiE, 



Order XV. RICCIACE.E.— Crvstalwokts. 



RicciEiE, Nees Leherm. 



Bischoff in Nov. Act. xvii. 2. 964 ; 

 Endl. Gen. xvii. 



Lindenb. ibid, xviii. 412. — RicciACE.t, 



Diagnosis. — Spore-cases xalveless, v:ithout operculum or elaters. 

 Terrestrial herbs, of diminutive size, inhabiting mud or water, swimming or floating, 

 usually annual, their leaves and stems blended into a frond of a cellular structure, 



creeping, gi^een or purple under- 

 neath, \\Vd\ a chstinct epidennis, 

 and a cavity of air-passages be- 

 neath it in some species. Antheri- 

 dia immersed in the frond, \ni\\ 

 their mouth projecting in the form 

 of a papilla, or a slender cone. 

 Pistillidia in the frond of the same 

 or a different indiv-idual, immersed 

 or superficial, sessile or stalked ; 

 the common involucre either miss- 

 ing or scaly ; the mvolucels none, 

 or in the form of Uttle bladders perforated at the point. Spore- 

 cases membranous, united to a calyptra, or distinct from it, globose, 

 luu'sting iiTegularly when ripe. Spores triangular, p^Tamidal, and 

 half round, without elaters. — Endl. 

 These little plants form a plain transition from Thallogens to Acrogeus. They have 

 that combination of leaves and stem into what is called a frond, which is characteristic 



of Lichens, and their spores may be not imaptly 

 compared to the tetraspores of the Rose-tangle 

 order. But, on the other hand, their spoi-es are col- 

 lected m large munbers within organs resembling 

 the pistils of phsenogamous plants ; they have a dis- 

 tinct axis of gTowth, and an epidermis is distinctly 

 formed -with stomates for breathing with. (See 

 Lhulenherg, 1. c.) While, however, for the latter 

 leasons, they are to be regarded as more elevated 

 in the scale of organization than Lichens, or similar 

 plants, they are inferior to Liverworts and Scale- 

 mosses, because of the absence of those spiral 

 springs called elaters, by w hich, in the latter orders, 

 the spores are dispersed ; and to Split-mosses and Urn mosses, 

 because they want the complicated apparatus which is added to 

 the spore-cases of those orders, under the form of either an oper- 

 culum, or peristome. According to Endlicher, the Crystahvorts 

 pass through Corsmia into the tribe of Liverworts, and l)y Sphsero- 

 carpus into that of Scalemosses. There is a detailed account, by 

 Uuger, of the anatomy of Riccia glauca, in the Lmnoeo, vol. xiii. p. 1. The genus 

 Dm-itea is regarded by Messrs. Bory and Montague as formmg the nearest transition to 

 Liverworts ; they describe it as fructifying under water, which is very seldom the case 

 with the other Crystalworts. Ann. Sc. N. 3 ser. i. 22.5. 



Of the species hitherto known, two-thirds have been observed in Europe, and the 

 remainder in various parts of the world. Several species in North America, the Cape 

 of Good Hope, and Brazil, appear to be very similar to those of Europe. — Endl. 

 The uses of Cry.stalworts are unknown. 



Fig. XXXVII. 



Duriaea, B. 4- Mont. 

 Riccia, 3Iich. 

 Lichenoides, Bisch. 

 Ricciella, A. Brnvn. 



Hemiseumata, Bisch. 

 Ricciocarpiis, Cord. 

 Salviniella, Hubn. 

 Hemna, Raf. 



Sphaerocai-pus, Mich. 

 Oxj-mitra, Bisch. 



kuppinia, Corda. 

 Corsinia, Raddi. 



Giintheria, Trevir. 

 Brissocarpiis, Bisch. 

 Trsseliuia, rum. part. 



Numbers. Gen. 8. Sp. 29. 



lAchenacecB. 

 Position. Bryacese. — RicciACEiE. — Marchantiacese. 



Ceramiacece. 



Fig. XXXVI.—]. Riccia natans, a lobe magnified; 2. a portion of it, showing the spore-cases cut 

 open; 3. spores. „ ii, i- 



Fig. XXXVII.— Riccia glauca. 1. A young spore-case ; 2. an anthendmm ; 3, spores as they He 

 in the mother cell, {.linger.) 



