BRITISH JUNGERM AN N IiE . 
(J. emarginata .) 
Dr. Schrader mentions having seen capsules occasionally lateral, which Dr. Roth attributes to 
innovations of the stem, an opinion in which I am the more inclined to coincide, since I have 
at this moment, before me, si specimen from Mr. Lyell, which has young fructification, and, 
immediately below the calyx, a cluster of three or four young shoots, arising from the axilla of a 
leaf. These would, in the course of a little time, have given such an appearance of a continuation 
of the stem, that the fructification might, without a careful inspection, have been supposed to be 
lateral. The same author also describes the stems as really simple, and merely taking the 
appearance of being branched from their annual innovations, in which he is also probably right. 
Besides the singularly large and branching roots, already noticed, of J. emarginata, the shape 
of the leaves (which Ehrhart aptly compares to a heart cut out of paper), and the immersed 
calyces, afford character's so decisive, that this may be considered as a species the most distinct of 
any in the genus. In general habit, indeed, and somewhat in the shape of its leaves, it has an 
affinity with J. concinnuta, but so slight a one, that it will be needless for me to enlarge more 
upon the subject. 
In August, 1808, Mr. Borrer and myself found, upon the summit of Ben Nevis, small specimens 
of this plant, whose calyces contained two, and sometimes three, fertile gernrens, and, what was 
more remarkable, capsules of veiy diminutive size, situated upon peduncles so short that they 
were not equal to the length of the calyx; yet these capsules were fully formed, and some of them 
were even discharging their seeds and filaments whilst under the microscope. This appearance i* 
represented at f . II. 
REFERENCES TO THE PLATE. 
vta. 
1. Male plant of J. emarginata, natural size. 
2. Sterile plant, natural size. 
3. Female plant, natural size. 
4. The same, magnified 
5. Leaf 
6. Perfect anther 
7. Anther, after it has discharged its pollen 
8. Interior of a calyx 
9. Calyx and perichcetial leaf 
10. Seeds and spiral filaments 
11. Receptacle, with the calyx torn away to exhibit the small capsules 
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4 
1 
1 
4 
5 
1 
3 
