m [ 2590 ]
JUNG ERMANN IA cordifolia.
Heart-leaved Jungennannia.
CRYPTOGAMIA Hepaticce.
Gen. Char. Male flowers sessile. Anthers stalked.
Capsule on a stalk, rising from a sheath, of 4 valves.
Seeds attached to elastic filaments.
Spec. Char. Erect, wavy, subdivided. Leaves in two
rows, erect, concave, heartshaped, entire, clasping
the stalk, without scales. Sheaths oblong-ovate,
somewhat plaited ; contracted and finely toothed
at the orifice.
Syn. Jungermannia cordifolia. Hooker Brit. Jung,
t. 32.
M r . HOOKER alone has already described this Jungermannia.
Our specimens were gathered in Scotland by C. Lyell, Esq.,
the only person who has met with the sheaths of the female
fructification. The perfect capsules are as yet undiscovered.
This plant grows in moist situations, on many mountains in
the Highlands, and has also been found, by Mr. Woods, in Ireland.
It composes dense tufts, an inch or two wide, conspicuous
for the blackish hue, usual in aquatic mosses and Junger-
mannice. The stems are from one to three inches high, slender,
leafy, erect but wavy, simple or branched. Leaves clasping the
stalk and each other by their broad, almost tubular, base; they
are heartshaped, bluntish and entire, without any stipulaceous
scales. Sheaths terminal or lateral, elliptic-oblong, plaited
lengthwise near the top, being much contracted at the orifice,
and finely toothed. The young lateral shoots are peculiarly zigzag,
with very small close leaves. Mr. Hooker considers this
species as so distinct, that he cannot point out any one to which
it is allied.