/ S t [ 2498 ]
JUNGERMANNIA resupinata.
Curled Jungermannia.
CRYPTOGAMIA Hepatices.
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. Procumbent, scarcely branched. Leaves
two-ranked, rounded, entire, in two nearly equal
lobes folded vertically together. Sheaths terminal,
oblong, incurved, compressed, abrupt, nearly
entire.
Syn. Jungermannia resupinata. Hooker Brit. Jung,
t. 23 ; excluding the synonyms. Linn. FI. Suec.
400 ?
W e are obliged to Mr. Turner for these specimens, gathered
at Herringfleet, near Yarmouth; and to Mr. Hooker for determining
our t. 2437 to be but a variety of J. nemorosa, t. 607.
That t. 2437 however, being the plantof Dillenius, t. 71. f . 19,
is unquestionably what Linnaeus intended in Sp. PL, as the character
also shows; though the original definition in the FI. Suecica
accords better with our present plant. There is nothing in the
Linn. Herbarium to help us here. From Mr. Hooker’s accurate
inquiries, it is evident none of the synonyms he quotes have the
shadow of authority, but rather are manifestly wrong. Still, in
this dilemma, we readily concur with him in establishing the present
very clear species as J. resupinata, there being no other distinct
one.
It grows in a loamy soil; not unfrequently “ under the trailing
stems of Ericce,” bearing capsules in May and June, after flowering
in the early spring. The stems, above half an inch long,
form dense tufts, especially when fertile, creeping by numerous
radicles. Leaves yellowish-brown, two-ranked, deflexed, of two,
nearly equal, folded, roundish lobes, entire, except here and there
a small tooth on the upper ones. Sheath terminal, compressed
upward, curved, especially before the capsule protrudes ; the orifice
abrupt, minutely crenate. It seems Dr. Withering and ourselves
have been misled concerning J. purpurea, our t. 1023
being also nemorosa ; and further, that the fructified specimen
of undulata, t. 2251, (not 225,) is perhaps scalaris. We gratefully
acknowledge the communications and corrections of our
friends; but that specimen came separately named from the same
high authority, and we supposed its fruiting might cause the
apparent difference.