150 D I FLO PER IS TO MI. [Hookeria. 



serrated at the extremity with two nerves reaching nearly 



their whole length. (TAB. XXVII.) 



Hookeria laete-virens. Hooker and Tayl. Muse. Brit. ed. 1. Hook. 



and Grev. in Edin. Journ. of Science, v. 2. p. 230. Am. Disp. Muse. 



p. 56. 



HAB. Wood near Cork in tolerable plenty, but rare in fruit. 

 Mr. Drummond. 



Stems from two to three inches in length, branched in an 

 irregularly pinnated manner, compressed. Leaves arranged on 

 four sides, but bifarious in their direction, ovate, slightly con- 

 cave, their margin thickened, their point acuminulate, and, under 

 a microscope, slightly serrated, nerves two to each leaf, standing 

 considerably apart, and running up to more than three-fourths 

 of the length of the leaf; reticulation very evident but not so 

 large, nor the leaves so succulent as in the last species. Fructi- 

 fication as in H. lucens. 



Our friend Mr. Drummond of Cork had the good fortune to dis- 

 cover this elegant plant, and was so kind as to communicate speci- 

 mens to us in the year 1816. No one, on examining the leaves 

 with the slightest attention, can have any difficulty in distin- 

 guishing this moss from H. lucens ; and even the whole plant, 

 in its smaller size, brighter green colour, and more membrana- 

 ceous foliage, is sufficiently striking. It is not with the other 

 British species that it can ever be confounded, but with the 

 figure of Leskea albicans, (an undoubted Hookeria,) it bears so 

 perfect an accordance that few Botanists would venture on pro- 

 nouncing them different species, without as cautious a comparison 

 between authentic specimens as we have ourselves made. In 

 L. albicans, the colour is very much paler, and has given rise 

 to its specific name ; the leaves are of a thinner texture, and 

 furnished with reticulations so remarkably large, that when a 

 leaf of each is seen on the table of a microscope, at the same 

 time, a tyro in the science would say that they could not 

 belong to the same species. Moreover, in L. albicans the mar- 

 gin of the leaf is thicker, and the leaves are much more deeply 

 serrated. In other respects, the foliage perfectly accords. But 

 there appears a dissimilarity in the operculum, which is shorter 

 in the L. albicans, and the calyptra is not only of a different 

 texture, but cleft at the base, like the veil of a Trwhostotmem, 



