176 Evans : Hepaticae of Puerto Rico 



ArcJdlejeiinea conferta Schiffn. Conspect. Hepat. Archip. Indici 



315. 1898. 



Plants becoming yellowish or brownish upon drying: stems 

 0.17 mm. in diameter, branches obliquely to widely spreading: 

 leaves imbricated, the lobe widely spreading, often revolute at the 

 apex, falcate, broadly ovate, 1 mm. long, 0.85 mm. wide when of 

 maximum size, often considerably smaller, arching across or a little 

 beyond the axis, antical margin straight or slightly incurved near 

 the base, then strongly outwardly curved to the apex, postical 

 margin straight or somewhat curved, not revolute, forming an 

 angle of 90 degrees or more with the strongly arched keel ; lobule 

 0.35 mm. long, 0.2 mm. wide ; cells of lobe averaging iy fjt at the 

 margin, 25 /i in the middle and 40 X 25 fi at the base, trigones 

 triangular with concave sides, intermediate thickenings sometimes 

 confluent with the trigones ; ocelli (when present) mostly one to 

 three, situated near the base of the lobe, measuring about 45 X 

 32 fi: underleaves broadly orbicular-obovate, 0.35 mm. long, 

 0.35-0.4 mm. wide, plane, cuneate and short-decurrent at the base : 

 perichaetial bracts erect-spreading, the lobe obovate from a nar- 

 row base, 1.2 mm. long, 0.7 mm. wide, convex and revolute at the 

 apex, rounded to obtuse at the apex, lobule ovate-oblong, 0.75 

 mm. long, 0.25 mm. wide; bracteole 0.4-0.75 mm. long, 0.25- 

 0.4 mm. wide; perianth about two-fifths exserted at maturity, 

 1-1.3 mm. long, 0.7-0.75 mm. in diameter, apex variable, usually 

 truncate or subretuse but sometimes rounded or even subacute, 

 keels variable, sometimes low and almost obsolete, sometimes dis- 

 tinctly dilated in the upper part, when well developed showing a 

 marginal row of slightly projecting cells with strongly thickened 

 walls, postical surface of perianth sometimes developing one or two 

 low and supplementary keels or folds : $ inflorescence apparently 

 never proliferating; bracts mostly in from two to seven pairs, 

 closely imbricated, inflated, shortly bifid, the lobe strongly convex, 

 rounded at the apex, antical margin straight or a little incurved, 

 keel strongly arched, lobule obtuse to acute at the apex ; bracte- 

 oles similar to the underleaVes but smaller : mature sporophyte 

 not seen. (Plate 8, figures 9-23.) 



On trees. Puerto Rico, without definite locality, Sintenis 

 {too). The writer has seen no specimens of A. conferta from 

 Puerto Rico but has collected it abundantly on the island of 

 Jamaica, where it occurs at elevations of from 1,000 to 2,000 m. 

 The species was originally collected in Peru but is now also known 

 from Brazil, Bolivia, Venezuela, Trinidad, Colombia, and Mexico. 

 Whether it occurs outside of tropical America is somewhat doubt- 



