BRITISH JUNGERMANNm. 
(J. compressct.J 
JUNGERMANNIA COMPRESS A. 
(TAB. LVIII. ) 
Jungermannia, caule erecto, diviso: foliis bifariis, orbicularibus, (summis subreniformibus,) 
planis, erectis, appressis : stipulis in innovationibus junioribus, minutissimis, bifidis integrisque; 
in caule nullis : fructu terminal! ; calycibus perichsetio immersis, oblongis, carnosis ; ore aperto, 
quadridentato. 
Hab. Mountain rivulets, near Bantry. Miss Hutchins . — Lough Bray. Dr. Taylor. (It 
produces fruit in the month of June.) 
Plant growing in dense, purplish tufts, of some inches in diameter. 
Roots, scarcely any j a few simple fibres may here and there be seen near the base of the plant. 
Stems varying from two to six inches, or more, in length, erect, or only growing in a horizontal 
direction, when carried down by the force of a mountain streamlet, filiform, fiexuose, 
branched, or at least appealing so, in consequenee of the innovations, which are rather 
copiously produced, and are often of such a size as scarcely to be distinguished from the 
stem itself: all of a brown or purplish color, and a cellular texture, though, in the older 
parts of the plant, the cellules are obscure, and almost obliterated. 
Leaves often three-fourths of a line in length, varying in size in different parts of the plant; 
but in general largest at the extremity of the stem, both in the fertile, and in the sterile 
individuals : they are closely but alternately placed, imbricating each other in a very 
regular and beautiful manner, erect, oppressed, and, from their pellucid nature, suffering 
the stem to be seen through them, dividing each of them, as it were, 'into two nearly 
equal halves (f. 5) ; in figure, they are for the most part orbiculate, except those at the 
extremity, which are nearly reniform, all plane, decurrent at the lower margin, and every 
where entire. In those individuals, which have been subject to the action of a current of 
water, the leaves are at intervals distantly placed, and often decayed (f. 4), and, on the 
young innovations, they are much less closely arranged, somewhat concave, and have not 
unfrequently an oblique direction (f. 6). The texture of the leaves is semi-pellucid, 
peculiarly thin and delicate, so as to be almost membranaceous, but, when dry, somewhat 
rigid ; the cellules are roundish, those at the margin of a regularly subquadrate form. The 
color is in the lower leaves a pale yellowish green, while those above are of a fine deep purple. 
