( J. byssacea.J 
BRITISH JUNGERMANNI7E. 
observes that Schmidel’s figure of J. bicuspidata, Diss. Jung. f. 16. accurately expresses the 
habit and situation of the leaves of J. bijssacea, and that he should certainly have quoted it as 
a synonym, were it not for the gemmiferous globule being there represented as situated 
upon the extremity of the naked stem, while in the present species it is immersed in tufts 
{to suits) of leaves. To me, however, it appears that Schmidel’s figure just alluded to was 
intended for the true bicuspidata, and though I have quoted, doubtingly, fig. 2. t. 62. 20. 
of that author’s leones as the gemmiferous plant of J. bijssacea, I have much more reason 
to think it was really intended for this species than the figure in his Dissertatio referred 
to above. “ Mihi occurrerunt (he says) inter plantulas masculinas et femineas llorentes 
hujus Jungermanniee (J. exsecta), minutissimoe plantuke globuliferse alius Jungermannice, 
cujus folia brevia, et obtusius bisecta fuerunt ; adjeci igitur ea huic tabula;, sed videntur 
pertinere ad Jungermanniam istam minimam quam t. C4. f. 2. pietam exhibeo. ” This reference 
to f. 2. t. 64. is a still farther inducement for me to consider the plant just mentioned 
as belonging to Roth’s byssacea : for although Sclunidel was of opinion that the one referred 
to was probably a variety of his J. bicrenata, (J. inflata. Huds.) and notwithstanding some 
of the lower leaves of the figure more nearly resemble those of J. excisa, yet the different 
shape of the calyx in the former of these Jungermannisc, and the generally simple mode of 
growth of the latter, forbid their being united with it. It is surely not drawn with the 
accustomed accuracy and minuteness of the author of the leones Plantarum, and leaves me 
so far uncertain as to its identity, that I have not ventured upon the name of bifida, which 
Schreber, the editor of the third fasciculus, has, in a note, proposed should be given to it *. 
With regard to the situation of the Gemma, upon J. byssacea, it might naturally be 
expected, from its close affinity with J. bicuspidata, that they would be found produced in 
similar spherical clusters and in the same situation as in that species. Such, too, appeals 
to be the case from Schmidel’s figure, so that in all probability what Roth has found in 
the clusters of terminal leaves and looked upon as analogous to the gemma; in J. bicuspidata, 
are real anthers, such as are noticed by Dr. Smith in English Botany. 
Allied as this species certainly is to J. bicuspidata, and slightly as it may appear to be 
distinguished from it in the specific character, yet it will be found to differ remarkably 
in its minute size, in the remote situation of the leaves, in the shortness of these in p,o- 
portion to the diameter of the surculus, in the deeper and browner color of the whole plant, 
and more particularly in the calyces being always terminal upon the surculi, and in then- 
being surrounded at the base by perichsetial leaves, which are less deeply divided, and which 
have segments never, that I have been able to discover, in the least recurved. 
In their places of growth a difference maybe remarked; for, while J. bicuspidata affects 
moist and shady banks or the boggy parts of heaths, J. byssacea is most commonly met with 
on open and exposed situations, in dry foot-paths, and even forming, upon sand-hills, blackish 
patches, visible at some distance from the dark green of the surculi and foliage. 
* Since the above has been printed I have been favored by Mr. Lyell with 
mannia, which agrees in more particulars with the plant figured in Schmidel, t. 
J. byssacea, and which I have very great reason to suppose is the same. 
a new British species of Junger- 
62. 20. f. 2. and t. 64. f. 2. than 
REFERENCES 
