JUNGERMANNIA pusilla.
Dwarf Jungermannia.
CRYPTOGAMIA Hepatic*.
Gen. Char. Male flowers sessile.
Capsule on a stalk rising from a sheath, of 4 valves.
Seeds attached to elastic filaments.
Spec. Char. Stem creeping. Leaves imbricated in two
ranks, angular, without auricles. Sheaths plaited,
bell-shapea. Valves of the capsule dilated and
jagged.
Syn. Jungermannia pusilla. Linn. Sp. PL 1602. Huds.
518. LVith. 868. Hull. 282. Relh. 440. Sibth.
813. Æbot. 255. Hoffm. FI. Germ.v. 2. 90.
Lichenastrum exiguum, capitulis nigris lucidis, e cotylis
parvis nascentibus. Dill. Muse. 513. t. 74. f . 46.
L. minimum, capitulis nigris lucidis. Dill, in Raii
Syn. 110.
R e c e iv e d from the neighbourhood of Sheffield, by favour
of Mr. Jonathan Salt, in April last. It is not a common
species, but occurs now and then on moist shady banks.
The stems are short and creeping, throwing out abundance
of dark purplish radicles, and clothed with two rows of
crowded, or imbricated, bright green leaves, whose form is
irregular, somewhat wedge-shaped, and angular. Several
sessile bell-shaped sheaths, very much plaited, stand in a row
along the upper side of the stem, each producing a short
stalk, with a brown capsule, whose valves are dilated and
roundish, jagged or notched, and somewhat unequal. The
leaves and sheath are finely marked with roundish reticulations.
It seems ta us that Mr. Dickson’s J. angulosa is rightly
united to this by Professor Hoffmann, the figure 46 of Dil-
lenius having been taken from imperfect specimens, and^g. 22,
C, D, E, copied from Micheli, having been drawn from more
luxuriant ones, without due attention to the form of the valves.
This point, however, we leave for future decision.
In some of our latter descriptions of this genus, we have accidentally
referred it to the order of Algce instead of Hepaticce.