V> . [ 1 3 2 8 ]
BLASIA pusilla.
Dwarf Blasia.
CR YPTOGAMIA Hepaticce.
G e n . C h a r . Male, solitary imbedded in the frond.
Female, Cal. none. Caps, imbedded in the frond,
oblique, of 1 cell, with a tubular mouth. Seeds numerous.
S p e c . C h a r ..........................
S y n . Blasia pusilla. 'Linn. Sp. PI. 1605. Buds. 519.
With. 886. Hull. 283. Light/. 1112. Hedw.
Theor. t. 28. ƒ 1 5 6—164. Mich. Gen. 14. t. 7.
Mnium lichenis facie. Dill. Muse. 23“ . t. 31. f . 7.
T H E original observer of this plant in England was a Mr.
Wm. Harrison, who sent it to Dillenius from the neighbourhood
of Manchester. The latter committed a very great error
in reducing it to the genus Mnium, and deserves the more censure
on account of his contemptuous mention of Micheli for
making it a new genus. Following botanists have found
Micheli a better judge of a genus than Dillenius. Our specimen
was sent from Ireland by favour of Mr. Templeton. It
grows in shady damp rather sandy places, bearing fruit in
October and November, and is of annual duration, the young
plants appearing in the following summer.
The roots are fibrous. Fronds spreading circularly on the
ground, an inch or more in extent, subdivided, lobed and cre-
nate, of a light grass green, pellucid and shining, smooth,
waved at the margin, appearing of a fine reticulated substance
when held against the light, like a Marchantia. Black sessile
depressed warts, agreed on all hands to be the male flowers,
are scattered over the frond, and in the middle of each great
lobe, towards the end, is placed an ovate oblique capsule, immersed
in the substance of the frond, crowned with a long
erect tubular mouth, through which the copious seeds are
discharged. *