70 HEPATIC^. [Riccia. 



however, I have also observed discharged oblongo-rotundate brownish 

 bodies, evidently reticulated, whose destination or functions I am at a 

 loss to conjecture ; they are, however, very distinct from the compactly 

 granulated dark green bodies of Jungermannia Blasia described by 

 Dr. Hooke. 



8. RICCIA, Linn. 



Capsule, with its exterior membrane calyptriform, bearing a 

 style, the interior enclosing numerous subangular seeds united 

 in fours or quaternions, with pellucid coats. The style pro- 

 truded above the frond. 



1. R. crystalling LINN. Frond oblong, bilobed, dichoto- 

 mous, carnose, punctate. Linn, sp.pl. p. 1605 (and R. glauca 

 of the same page). Muse. Brit. ed. 2. p. 212. 



On banks and hedges ; common ; flowering all the year. The style 

 is brownish-black, opaque. Capsules near the base of the frond some- 

 times ripen when those nearer the summit are quite immature. Among 

 the quaternions of seeds there are no spiral or other filaments. I 

 have observed of three capsules closely placed, the central to be abor- 

 tive, in which case the covering that in a young state encloses each 

 quaternion, though fully formed, was empty and collapsed. In two 

 instances only, out of numerous trials, have I found immersed in the 

 frond not far from the top, oblongo-spherical bodies of a light brownish 

 colour, as large as the quaternions, but perfectly smooth and unmarked 

 on the surface by any lines of division. These, I have no other reason 

 to doubt are the true anthers, but the fewness of the observations. 



