HANDBOOK OF BRITISH HEPATICiE. 



221 



Hep. 20, t. ii., fig. 6, in part ; Carr. and Pears. 

 Exs. No. 5. Nardia Sprucei, Mass. and Carr. 

 Epat. Alp. 222. 



On sandstone rocks. (Fr. Early Summer.) 



Primary shoots stoloniferous, creeping, attached 

 to the ground by numerous 

 rootlets, mostly forming 

 patches of a lurid brown colour, 

 as if scorched. Stems ascend- 

 ing, one or two lines high, thick, 

 fleshy. Barren shoots scarcely 

 one-third the diameter of the 

 fertile ones, of nearly the same 

 thickness throughout. Leaves 

 increasing in size upwards, dis- 

 tant, seldom more than five to 

 eight pairs, bifariously imbri- 

 cate, vertical, upper ones 

 gradually enlarging, closely 

 appressed, complicate-concave (fig. 153), elliptic- 

 ovate or broadly ovate from a dilated saccate 

 base ; apex acutely emarginate, lobes angular, 

 sinus acute, one-fourth of the length. Texture 

 firm, translucent, pale yellow or olive. Inflo- 

 rescence paroicous. Antheridia occupying the same 

 perichaetium as the pistillidia, but arising from the 

 axil of the lower bract. Fertile shoots clavate. In- 

 volucral leaves half the length of the involucre, 

 broadly ovate, lobes rather obtuse, connivent. In- 

 volucre equal in length to the rest of the stem. 

 Perianth half as long as the involucre, apex free, 

 conical, at first contracted and crenate, afterwards 

 irregularly lobed. Calyptra large, obovate. 



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