f 



MEMOIRS 



OF THE 



TORREY BOTANICAL CLUB. 



I Vol. I. 



No. 3. 



HEPATIC^ BOLIVIANS, 



In AxniBUs Boi-ivi.t orientalis, annis 1S85-6, 



A CL. H. H. RUSBY LECT-E. 



Bv Richard Spruce, Coneysthotpe, England. 



The small collection of Hepaticx^ made by Dr. Rusby on the 

 ^ eastern slope of the Boh\^ian Andes is an interesting addition to 



our scanty knowledge of the Cryptogamia of that region. It 



serves also for comparison with what we know of the hepatic 

 flora of the Peruvian and Quitenian (equatorial) Andes, investi- 

 gated by myself; of the Andes of New Granada, by Lindig and 

 others; and of Mexico mainly by Liebmann. One curious fact 

 brought out by that comparison Is the greater correspondence of 

 the hepatic flora of Bolivia with that of Mexico than with that 

 of the equatorial regions (lat o° — 7° S.) personally known to me. 

 The climate and other conditions of growth In Mexico, a little 

 within the northern tropic, may be more nearly conformable to 

 those of Bolivia, in proximity to the southern tropic, than in the 

 intervening portions of the Cordilleras. Anyhow, many of the 

 hepatics of the highlands of Mexico are identical with those col- 

 lected by Dr. Rusby at nearly the same altitude in Bolivia, and 

 some of them were nowhere seen by myself near the equator. 

 Of Plagiochila, for instance, at least three Mexican species which 

 I did not gather in the Andes are proved to belong also in Boli- 

 via ; and two other Bolivian species which I suppose to be w^\m 

 have in Mexico their two nearest allies, neither of which Is known 

 to exist near the equator, Lepicolea ochroleuca, N. i^Seiidtnera, 

 Syn. Hep.), a large and showy hepatic, grows rarely from Mexi- 



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