( J. byssacea.) 
BRITISH J UNGER MANN I/E. 
JUNGERMANNIA BYSSACEA. 
(TAB. XII.) 
Jungermannia, surculo procumbente, flexuoso, stellatim ramoso: foliis subquadratis, incisis, 
segmentis acutis : fructu terminali ; calycibus oblongis, plicatis, ore dentato. 
Jungermannia byssacea. Roth, Cat. Bot. n. p. 158. Roth, Germ. m. p. 387. ( excl . 
syn. Hoffmanni.) 
Jungermannia bifida. Schmidel, leones, p. 250. t. 64. /. 2. et t. 62. /. 2. 19. et 20. 
( planta gemmifera.) 
Jungermannia divaricata. Eng. Bot. t. 719. 
Hab. First discovered in this country, by the Rev. R. B. Francis, on heathy and exposed 
situations in the neighborhood of Holt. — Far from uncommon in similar places in 
various parts of Norfolk and Suffolk. — Mr. Dawson Turner finds it growing in great 
profusion, but always barren, on the sand-hills at Hemsby, near Yarmouth. — Near 
Bantry in Ireland. Miss Hutchins. — About Belfast. Mr. Templeton. — On the Scotch 
mountains, by no means of rare occurrence. 
Plant most frequently growing in dense tufts or pulvinuli, conspicuous from their dark 
green, and frequently almost black color. 
The surculi, which may be reckoned among the smallest of any of the genus, are scarcely 
so thick as the human hair, and not more than two or three lines in length, throughout 
filiform, somewhat rigid, branched, like J. bicuspidata, in a kind of stellated foim; the 
branches often again divided, and procumbent, but the fertile ones pointing upwards at 
the tips : their color varies from an olive-green to a dark brown ; the latter is the most 
usual appearance. 
Leaves (f. 4) distantly placed, though occasionally clustered at the extremity of a surculus, 
yet in general so small that without great care, even under a microscope, the plant 
appears almost leafless : they do not exceed the tenth of a line in length, are 
appressed or patent, subcarnose, in figure nearly quadrate, at the base semiamplexicaul, 
at the extremity divided for about one third of their way by a rather obtuse sinus ; 
