Hepaticae : Yale Peruvian Expedition of igii. 303 



with Gottsche's ^ figures, except that the teeth on the leaves are more 

 numerous, numbering from sixty to eighty on robust leaves instead 

 of from twenty-five to forty. This is apparently due to the unusual 

 development of the plants and is hardly sufficient to justify their 

 separation as a distinct species. The present specimens bear a strik- 

 ing resemblance to large forms of P. asplenioides (L.) Dumort. and 

 especially to the variety major; in the common northern species, 

 however, trigones are always present in the leaf-cells and the teeth 

 are shorter and less spine-like. 



5. Plagiochila andicola Mont. & Gottsche 



Plagiochila andicola Mont. & Gottsche; Montagne, Ann. des Sc. 

 Bot. IV. 6: 187. 1856. 



On live wood, San Miguel, 6,000 feet, July 24, 1911. 



The sterile type material of P. andicola was collected b}- Jameson 

 at Quito, Ecuador, and apparently no other stations have been re- 

 corded. The present specimens agree with the published descriptions 

 except in two particulars, the plants being a little less robust and the 

 leaf -cells showing slightly larger measurements. According to the 

 descriptions the stems are 7—15 cm. long, the apical leaf-cells measure 

 18 /«, and the basal cells average 36 X 27 //.. In the Peruvian plants 

 the most robust stems are only 4 cm. long, the apical leaf-cells average 

 about 25 //, while the basal cells are about 45 x 28 //. These differ- 

 ences, however, are slight and the measurements compared are variable, 

 so that they afford no adequate basis for a specific separation. 



Most of the Peruvian plants are sterile or reproduce by abundant 

 propagula of the usual type. But a few show male inflorescences, 

 which sometimes occur at the base of a branch and sometimes at or 

 near the middle. In other words the male branch always produces 

 normal leaves beyond the perigonial bracts. The latter, in the few 

 cases observed, are in about six pairs and are closely imbricated. 

 Instead of spreading obliquely, as do the normal leaves, they are sub- 

 erect and only the apical portion is more or less squarrose. As in 

 all typical species of Plagiochila the antical basal portion is strongly 

 inflated and delicate in texture. The rest of the bract approaches 

 a normal leaf in texture, except that the cells are a little smaller 

 (averaging about 16 ft in the apical portion), and the thickenings 

 of the walls are less pronounced. When a well-developed bract is 

 spread out it is seen to be broadly ovate and strongly unsymmetrical 



^ Mex. Leverm. pi. 7. 1863. 



