38 BRITISH HEPATIC-S:. 



involucral scales {T. tomentosa, Sw.). Or undergoing more com- 

 plete metamorpliosis, in whicli the cortical layer of the tomentose 

 receptacle invests and becomes blended witb the calyptra, so as to 

 form a cylindrical, coriaceous, hirsute involucre, bearing at the apex 

 the abortive pistillidia (T. tomentella). Capsule oblong, cleft to the 

 base into four coriaceous valves. Pedicel bulbous at the base, in- 

 serted deep within the receptacle. Antheridia large, axillary in the 

 terminal leaves of separate shoots. Leaves setaceo-multifid, suc- 

 cubous. Amphigastria multipartite. Pronds glaucous-green, con- 

 spicuous, pinnate compound or decompound. 



JEtym. — 0^*1, rpi^os, hair; and «oXsof, a sheath. 



Obs. — Dumortier has spelt the name differently in each of the three ■works quoted, 

 and I think the emendation of N. ab E. -will be accepted rather than any of these, 

 in spite of the protest in Obs. sur les Jung., p. 20 : " II est plus correct d'6crire 

 Tricholea, par contraction pour Trichocolea, qui serait contraire au g6nie et S, ITiarmonie 

 de la langue latine." 



In N. ab Es. Eur. Leberm., Synopsis Hepat., and most later works, Trichocolm is 

 arranged with Ptilidium, under the section with " folia incuba." But in Hepat. Novo- 

 Grcmatensis (Ann. des Sc. Nat. 5'""° S^rie, tome i.), Dr. Gottsche states that the leaves 

 are succubous, " and proceed from the higher ventral point of attachment with the 

 stem, to the lower dorsal point, as in Lophocolea ; " and he places the genus between 

 Leioscyplms and Gymnanthe. 



The structure of the involucre differs from Nardia, in the absence of all trace of 

 colesule, so that the calyptra itself is connate, to a greater or less extent, with the 

 involucral stratum. In the latter character it comes nearer Aneura, and some species 

 of Schistochila, Dum. (GoUschia), e. g. Hook. Muse. Exot. t. 39 {S. glaucescens). 



Dr. Lindberg (Lin. Soc. Journ. Bot. v. viii. p. 193) selects Trichocolea tomenteUa 

 as the type of the calyptra thala/momitrica, and gives the following account of the 

 development of the fruit : " The perichsefcium is at first small and short, everywhere 

 covered by a felt of small bracts, filiform, branched, and intricate, like some Clado- 

 phoree, without any constant position, size, or form j the top also, which is somewhat 

 convex, possesses a pretty dense tomentum of similar, but smaller, conferva-like bracts 

 (paraphyses !). Among them are fixed on the top of the rachis or receptacle an un- 

 usually large number of pistUlidia of different degrees of ripeness, the central of which 

 are most mature. When one of these has been impregnated, not only its central cell 

 increases in size, but also the very rachis itself (uhi irritatio, ibi afflvxus .'), so that 

 the cellular cover of the central cell (calyptra) with its style and stigma, together with 

 all the sterile pistillidia, will be raised up. The young fruit is now completely 

 enclosed in a fig-like obconical pouch," bearing at its apex the barren pistillidia. 



When mature, the seta elongates, and pushes out the fruit from the rachideal 

 pouch, lifting up the top of the calyptra like- a lid, which soon disappears. 



Erom two observations made upon nearly mature involucra, I am led to suspect 

 that the connection between the outer stratum, and calyptra, is not always very Lati- 

 mate, since, on carefully laying open the former, I had no difficulty in detaching the 

 capsule surrounded by what seemed an entire calyptra ! In specimens of T. mollis- 

 sima, Tayl., from New Zealand, we not unfrequently find two mature capsules within 

 one involucre ; but I have never observed this in the European species. 



