﻿filaments belonging to the amphigastrium may have been ascribed 

 to the dorso-lateral leaves in the case of shortened stems, where the 

 foliar organs are densely crowded. But a glance at an attenuated 

 example at once reveals the true state of the case. The three sets 

 of leaves lie in three distinct transverse planes, forming a $ spiral. 

 Moreover the amphigastrium is commonly smaller than either of 

 the neighbouring dorso-lateral leaves and its filamentous segments 

 (crura of Spruce) are also fewer in number than in them. The 

 amphigastria are further easily distinguished by the root hairs 

 which rise behind them in the median line, and sometimes actually 

 spring from the cushion on which the filamentous leaf- segments 

 are situated. It is thus seen that the error is easy to rectify, and 

 it is the more odd that it should have arisen at all, since the plant 

 has been correctly described in this particular by many other 

 writers. Thus the Synopsis Hepaticarum has, "foliis amplu- 

 gastriisque conformibus," which is sufficiently accurate for ordinary 

 diagnostic purposes. The "stipules" are mentioned in the descrip- 

 tion of the plant in the English Flora, p. 121 ; and Spruce {On 

 Cephalozia, p. 87) not only refers to them, but also calls attention 

 to the dissimilarity existing between the number of the segments or 

 crura in the dorso-lateral and ventral leaves respectively. 



It would seem, however, from Hooker's description, given in his 

 British Jwigermannias, tab. 7, that " when the plant is closely 

 attached to the ground, the under side is bare of leaves." It is 

 possible that in this observation lies the clue to the origin of the 

 mistake. But of course the absence of the amphigastria, under the 

 special circumstances mentioned by Hooker, affords no criterion 

 either as to their existence or absence in the normally growing 

 plant. Personally, I have never failed to detect them in fresh 

 specimens, and I believe that their suppression is only exceptional, 

 and that, where it obtains, it may be ascribed to the prevalence of 

 special conditions. 



FKULLANIA MICKOPHYLLA. 

 By W. H. Pearson. 

 Prullania microphylla. Frullania Tcunarisci (L.) var. micro- 

 phylla Gottsche ex Carrington in Trans. Bot 8oc t Edin. vii. i"7 

 (1863). 



Exsicc. Gottsche & Rabenh. Hep. Eur. n. 209 & 636 ; Carr. St 

 Pears. Hep. Brit. Fasc. ii. n. 137. 



Dioicous, shallowly csespitose, small, reddish brown to brownish 

 black. Stems procumbent, dichotomously branched or pinnate, 

 radiculose; rootlets fasciculate, dirty white, produced from base of 

 stipules. Leaves incubous, closely imbricate, horizontal, unequally 

 bilobed, antical lobe crossing the stem, convex, broadly oval, ro- 

 tundate, postical lobe about three times smaller, saccate, oval, 

 erect, with apex inclined towards the stem; epidermis slightly 

 polished; cells small, 4-, 5- and 6-angled; walls thick; leaves crossed 

 obliquely by a line of slightly larger and darker moniliform cells. 



