X ^9'] BOTANICAL GAZETTE. IOI 



Notes on our Hepaticse. 



LUCIEN M . UNDERWOOD 



I. NORTHERN SPECIES. 



In a recent address, Simon Newcomb made the prophecy 

 that the time would come when he who made a discover)- in 

 the literature of a science would be entitled to as great recog- 



& ^ — . *^~ v& 



nition as he who made a discovery in nature. With the 

 sharply defined division of labor and the elaborate systems 

 of indexing now in use this is hardly likely to prove true in 

 botanical science ; yet we have not passed the time when 

 the discovery of forgotten works does not produce extensive 

 upheavals in the nomenclature of long established species 

 and supplants names long familiar by others often less eu- 

 phonious and simple. In the literature of the Hepatic^ two 

 worKs, neither of which has any special merit or originality, 

 have been the source of much contention and difference of 

 opinion, and, in connection with the earlier works of Necker 1 

 and Raddi 2 , really form the foundation of generic distinctions 

 among the Hepatic^. Copies of these works, though long 

 sought for, have only recently come into our possession. 

 They bear the titles: " A Natural Arrangement of British 

 P lants," by Samuel Frederick Gray, 2 vols. London, 182 1, 

 and " Commentationes Botanical Observations Botaniques 

 Par B. C. Dumortier." Tournay, 1822. 



In the first named work the species of Jungermania, of 

 which the British species had been elaborately monographed 

 by the elder Hooker five years before 3 , were placed in new 

 genera, which, for the greater part, corresponded to the sec- 

 tions already indicated in Hooker's work. The genera thus 



established were : Riccardius, Pallavicinius, Herverus, Papa, 

 Bis 



ll *s. Of these Blasia had been named by Micheli*, and 

 adopted by Linnaeus ; Hooker, however, had united it with 



! Elementa Botanica, 1790. 



2 Jungermannisgrafia Etrusca in Atte d. ft*. Ital. d. Scieuz. £, win, 1-45 (1818). 



3 British Jungcrmanni&e, 1816. 



#nr^ In l !? e text ( vnl - *• PP- W4, 706) this name is given to two entirely distinct genera ; the 

 lurmer, However, is changed to Pallavicinius later in the volume (p. 775). 



6 Nova plnntarum genera, 172'.). 



