858 



A NEW BRITISH HEPATIC. 



By W. H. Pearson. 

 (Plate 329.) 

 Scapania aspera Miiller & Bernet; Henri Bernet, Catalogue 



Hep. du Sud-Ouest de Ice Suisse et de la Haute- S»voie, 1888.— 

 Dioicous, loosely depresso-cespitose, of a reddish or olive-brown 

 colour. Stems tallish, simple or slightly branched, firm, blackish, 

 recurved at the apex, denudate at the base, radiculose ; rootlets few, 

 whitish. Leaves transversely inserted, somewhat smaller and 

 distant below, contiguous or imbricate above, subsecund, unequally 

 bilobed, margin ciliate-dentate ; postical lobe more distinctly cihate, 

 about twenty-five cilia around the margin; antical lobe with five to 

 ten more distant teeth, about half the size of the postical, convex, 

 oval-triangular, rotundate or rarely abruptly subacute, appressed to 

 the stem, postical lobe oval-oblong, rotundate or rarely abruptly 

 subacute, reflexed ; texture somewhat firm, epidermis yerruculose, 

 several minute papilla) on each cell ; cells small to rather minute, 

 subquadrate, walls thick, angles thickened, no trigones, bracts 

 rather larger than the upper leaves, lobes more equal, antical looe 

 rotundate. Perianth projecting half beyond the bracts oboyate, 

 compressed, mouth wide, truncate, spinose-cihate. Male stems 

 more slender, perigonial bracts enclosing leafy paraphyses along 

 with the antheridia. Sometimes gemmiparous. 



Dimensions.— Stems about 2 in. long, -5 mm. diam., with leaves 

 5- mm. wide ; branches -25 mm. diam., with leaves 2-75 mm. wide ; 

 Leaves, antical lobe 1-5 mm. x t- mm., postical lobe 2-5 mm. x 

 1-75 mm., antical 1-5 X 1% postical 2-5 x 1-5, antical 1-75 

 X 1-25, postical 2-25 x 1-25, cells -02 mm., -0175 mm. cilia of 

 postical lobe -05 mm.; bracts, antical lobe 2- mm. x 1-5 mm., 

 postical 2-5 mm. x 1-5 mm. ; perianth 8-5 x 2- mm. wide at the 

 mouth, laciniffi of the mouth -275 mm., cilia of the fame, •! mm. 



Habitat.— Growing on limestone rocks. 2. HUl above btud- 

 land, Dorset, E. M. Holmes, 26th April, 1884. 7. Near Aber, 

 Carnarvonshire, G. E. Hunt, May, 1868 (Herb Spruce) Tower 

 Hill, Abergele, Denbighshire, W. H. Pearson, August, 1892. 10. 

 Bolton Woods, Yorkshire, Dr. Carriwfton, July, 1877. 12. Yew- 

 barrow, Westmorland, George Stabler, Nov., 1869. 



Found on the Continent (Sweden, Switzerland, Germany, 



Austria, Italy). ^ ■■ _ , . OQ . 



Exsicc. G. & B. Hep. eur. n. 92 (as Scapania nemorosa), n. 334 



(as Scapania nemorosa), n. 602 (as Scapania aquiloba forma dentata), 

 Massal. Hep. it. ven. n. 62 (as Scapania aquiloba var. dentata). < 

 Obs — " Scapania aspera has nothing in common with Scapania 



aq uiloba, except its tuberculose cuticle ; it approaches nearest to 



Scapania nemorosa, with which it is constantly confounded, but it is 



distinguished from the last by its more slender stem the shorter 

 cilia of the leaves, the shape of the cells, the tuberculose cuticle, 

 and lastly by its calcareous habitat. Scapania nemorosa vera is only 

 found on silicious earth." Bernet, Cat. Hep. Suisse, p. 43. 

 Joubnal of Botany.— Vol. 30. [Dec. 1892.] 2 a 



