( J. exsecta.J 
BRITISH JUNGEIlMANNIiE. 
tlieir figure is ovate, concave, or rather conduplicate, at tire extremity very acute, and, 
what marks the species so decisively, furnished in the middle of the upper margin with 
a strong and sharp tooth, pointing a little upwards in a direction oblique with regard to 
the apex of the leaf. If Schrader be correct in his species, which I have great reason, 
however, to doubt, he finds the leaves to be generally unequally tridentate; while 
Schmidel, Mr. Francis, and myself, have observed them to be almost constantly bidentate, 
(provided the sharp apex may be allowed the appellation of a tooth,) though occasionally 
the lower ones, as may be seen in f. 2, of the plate, are tridentate. The texture of 
the leaves is particularly firm ; the cellules very small and numerous, requiring a good 
magnifier to distinguish the reticulated appearance formed by their interstices ; but with 
the highest power of the lens the cellules will be seen to be of a very irregular figure, 
and disposed throughout the substance of the leaf without any sort of order (f. 6). The 
color of the leaves is a pale green, very much approaching to yellow. 
Male Fructification unknown. 
Female Fructification (according to Schmidel, who alone has published an account of it, or 
even seen it) terminal, and produced (in Germany) in abundance in the months of May and 
June, if the weather' should prove moist ; never on those plants which bear the powdery 
globules, but upon such older individuals alone as are fast approaching to a state of decay. 
The calyx is described to be of an ovato-oblong figure, cut at the mouth into four obtuse teeth 
or lobes, and surrounded at the base by three or four pairs of unequally bifid and closely 
imbricated leaves ; the calyptra ovate, tipped with a rather thick vesicular stigma ; the 
peduncle white, pellucid, cellulose, about three times as long as the calyx ; the capsule 
roundish, approaching to ovate, bursting into four ligulate valves, that are obtuse at their 
extremities; the spiral filaments very elastic, composed of a double helix, of a rufo-fuscous 
color ; the seeds extremely numerous, minute, and of a paler hue than the filaments. 
The Gemma (f. 3) of this species are very abundant and peculiarly conspicuous, no less 
from their deep orange color, than from their situation. In the months of December 
and January they make their appearance, collected together in small spherical masses 
(f. f. 3. 7) about the tenth of a line in diameter, occupying the extreme points of eight 
or ten or more of the terminal leaves. The minute particles or gemmae of which these 
balls are composed, are in their most perfect state closely united, but on putting them 
into water a very slight pressure is sufficient to cause them to separate, and a number 
of pellucid angular reddish bodies (f. 8) are observable floating in the liquid. In 
February, indeed, these particles disunite of themselves, and lie scattered over the leaves 
and stems of the plant in considerable quantity, having much the appearance of the 
farina ot some phacnogamous plants. 
