36 



NOTES ON A NEW PLANT TO TASMANIA. 



By R a. Bastow, F.L.S. 



EICCIA NATANS. 



Nat. Okd. Hepatic^, 



Gen. Char. — Small, frondose, terrestrial or aquatic. Capsule- 

 immersed in the frond. Calyptra cohering with the 

 globose capsule. Spores angular. 



Biccia natans, Linn. — Fronds floating, jellowish-green above, 

 bordered with dull purple, obcordate, channelled, simple 

 or proliferous from the notches, with long purple serrate 

 fimbrise below. (PL 1). 



JSe/.— Flora Nov. Zealandias ii., p. 172. Hooker's Botanical 

 Miscellany 1., pi. 23. 



Hah. — Floating on Black Lagoon near Tamar Heads. Miss 

 Oakden, Dec, 1886. 



The small plant referred to this genus is perhaps the most 

 simple of all the Hepaticse. It is found floating on 

 water, and may be passed by as a Lemna if not closely 

 observed. The fronds are fleslay and inversely heart-shaped, 

 being clothed beneath and at the edges with long, pendant, 

 purple fimhrice ; these may be observed on the stage of one 

 of the microscopes on the table. 



The plant introduces a new genus to Tasmania, and I fail 

 to find any previous record of R. natans being observed in 

 Australasia, with the exception of one locality, and that is 

 Lake Eoto-a-kiwa, North Island, New Zealand ; the collector, 

 Mr. Colenso. To the description of that plant in Flor. Nov, 

 Zeal., the author has added the bracketed remark " (a native of 

 England)." In connection with this, it may be stated that Miss 

 Oakden's specimens are different to the British states of the 

 species in the purple bordering of the fronds. In Hooker's 

 Botanical Miscellany the plant is most accurately illustrated 

 as it is found in Tasmania, but the specimen from which the 

 drawing was made was JR. natans from North America. 

 The Tasmanian and the British plants are mounted side 

 by side in a jelly medium on a glass slip and are 



