LUNULARIA VULGARIS, MICH. 
270 
Lunularia, even in the barren state. Analogous structures 
are to be found in Marchantia polymorpha, but in that plant 
they take the form of a small drinking-glass, or tumbler, with 
a toothed edge, whilst in Conoceplialus and Asterella they are 
orbicular. 
The male receptacles, containing antheridia, are sessile 
on the upper surface of the frond, as in Conoceplialus (Fega- 
tella or Marchantia) conicus. The latter plant, however, 
both in the barren state and with the male flowers, may 
always be distinguished by a peculiar aromatic fragrance which 
the bruised fronds yield. It is also by no means a weed of 
cultivation, and is much larger and coarser than Lunularia. 
The fructification of our plant consists of four whitish 
semi-transparent involucres arranged crosswise at the summit 
of a common peduncle, which is also white and pellucid. It 
is to this arrangement of the involucres that we owe the 
obsolete names of Cruciata and Stauropliora formerly applied 
to this plant. Each of the four (which used to be considered 
as forming conjointly a receptacle, as in Marchantia) is bila¬ 
biate at the apex, and contains a capsule which ultimately 
projects beyond the apex on a hyaline pedicel, and splits into 
four linear valves—precisely as in Jungermannia. 
It will thus be seen that Lunularia forms an interesting 
link between the Marchantice and the Jungermanniee— 
approaching the former by the structure of the frond, the 
disposition of the antheridia and the presence of special 
“ apparatus gemmipari,” and coming near to the latter in the 
delicate pellucid fruitstalk, the absence of a true female 
receptacle, and in the capsules, which do not burst irregularly, 
as in Marchantia and its allied genera, but normally into 
four valves, as in Jungermannia and the forms akin to it. 
And it will be obvious also that there is ample reason for 
separating it from Marchantia, under which it was formerly 
included, and constituting for it a separate genus. It is, in 
fact, considered by some botanists as forming the type of a 
distinct subsection of the Marchantiacece, called Lunularieee, 
of which subsection the foreign Plagiochasma is the only 
other genus known to me. 
In conclusion I might suggest that records of Asterella 
hemisphcerica may occasionally refer in reality to the sterile 
state of Lunularia, the mistake arising from an idea that the 
specific name hemisphcerica refers to the shape of the gemmi¬ 
ferous cavities, whereas in reality it is intended to denote the 
shape of the capsule of Asterella. 
