BRIEFER ARTICLES 



A NEW HEPATIC FROM THE EASTERN UNITED STATES. 



(with plate xii) 



Although the species of Diplophylleia described below is not 

 uncommon along the Atlantic coast, and has long been known to 

 hepaticologists, it has been confused with other members of the genus- 

 As the synonymy shows, Sullivant referred the plant to Jungermannia 

 obtiisifolia Hook., now known as Diplophylleia obtusifolia Trevis. This 

 distinct species is widely distributed in Europe and has recently been 

 reported by Stephani from Japan/ The only American station, how- 

 ever, which can be quoted with any degree of certainty is Hector, 

 British Columbia, where it was collected in 1889 by Macoun and dis- 

 tributed in Canadian Hepaticae, no. 100. Austin threw doubts upon 

 Sullivant's determination of the eastern plant, but instead of recog- 

 nizing in it a distinct species referred it as a forma minor to his 

 Scapa?iia albicans, var. taxifolia. Nearly every writer on the Hepaticae 

 now regards this so-called variety as a species distinct from Diplo- 

 phylleia albicans (L.) Trevis., and it appears in recent literature as D. 

 taxifolia (Wahl.) Trevis. With regard to the exact status of Austin's 

 var. taxifolia fninor, no views have recently been expressed except 

 those of Pearson,' who apparently accepts the old determination of 

 Sullivant. 



Diplophylleia apiculata, sp. nov. — Jungermannia obtusifolia SulL, 

 Gray's Manual, Ed. 1, 694. 1848 (not Hooker). Scapania albicans ^v^x. 

 taxifolia minor Aust. Hep. Bor.-Amer. 23. 1873. — Yellowish-green, 

 more or less tinged with brown or red, growing in depressed mats : 

 axes o . I y"""" in diameter, sparingly pinnate, both primary and secondary 

 prostrate at the base and ascending toward the apex, with abundant 

 pale rhizoids in the prostrate portions : leaves imbricated, deeply and 

 unequally complicate-bilobed ; antical lobe erect-spreading, ovate, 

 0.4"^™ long, 0.2'""' wide, slightly narrowed at the base and attached by 

 an almost transverse line of insertion, not decurrent, apex varying 

 from rounded to subacute, mostly apiculate, margin entire or indis- 

 tinctly and irregularly denticulate; keel slightly concave; postical 



^Bull. Herb. Boissier 5 : 78. 1897. "Hepaticae of the British Isles, 242. IQOO. 



272 [NOVEMBER 



