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J U N G E RMA N N I A pinguis.
Slippery Jungermannia.
CRYPTOGAMIA Alg.t.
G en. Char. M a le flowers feffile. (H e d w ig .)
F em a le on a fo o tfla lk rilin g from a (h e a th . C a p fu le
w ith 4 v a lv e s. Seed s a tta c h e d to e la ftic filam e n ts .
Spec. Char. S tem n o n e . F ro n d o b lo n g , fin u a te d ,
flip p e ry .
Svn. J u n g e rm a n n ia p in g u is . Linn. Sp. PI. 1 6 0 2 , HudJ.
FI. An. 5 1 7 . With. Bot. A rr. V. 3. 1 5 6 . Relh.
Cant. 4 2 0 .
L ic h e n a f tr um c a p itu lis o b lo n g is ju x t a fo lio rum
d iv ifu ra s e n a fc e n tib u s . Rail Syn. n o . D ill.
Mujc. 5 0 9 . t. 7 4 . / - 4 2 .
F O U N D in boggy, marlhy places, commonly producing its
ripecapfules in April; this forwardfeafon ( 1794), it has been
fomewhat earlier. When very luxuriant, it grows ere£t in
thick tufts, and does not flower; otherwife the fronds are horizontal,
attached to the moift earth by hair-like fibres, and of
a very wet, flimy, flippery fubftance, tender like boiled vegetables.
From the incifions of the frond arife folitary tubular
(heaths, each producing an upright fimple pellucid fhalk, terminated
by a black oval capfule, called anthera by Linnaeus,
which burfts at the top into 4 valves, and is full of black elaftic
fibres, connected with numerous feeds.
We beg leave to point out an inaccuracy in the character of
this genus in the Bot. Arr. as taken from Linnaeus. It (hould
be Fruit-flalk bearing a naked flower, that is, deftitute of calyx
and corolla. The Linnaean word Anthera is indeed properly
changed for Capfule; but, by a ftrange overfight, the defcription
pf the real male flower is continued as if it were the female.
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