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[ a87 ]
TARGIONIA hypophylla.
Dotted Targiotiia,
C R T P T O G A M I A Alga.
G en . Char, Cal. of % concave valves. Seeds very
numerous, collected into a globe.
Spec. Char. , . . .
Syn. Targionia hypophylla. L in n . Sp. P I. 1603,
HudJ. F I. A n . 519. W ith . B o t. A rr. V . 3. i c j .
L ig h tf. Scot. 792.
Lichenaftrum qapitulo oroboide. R a iiS y n . no.
Lichen petneus minimus, fruftu Orobi. D ill. M ufc.
532. /-■ 78./. 9.
Vy
ERY few botanifts have gathered this plant in Britain,
infomuch that feveral of the moft accurate have doubted whe,
ther fome Marchantia or Jungermannia had not been miftaken
or it. We are enabled to decide this point by means of wild
fpecimens gathered b / the Rev. Mr. Kirby, on a bank near
Nayland m Suffolk. Hudfon found it in Devonfhire, a part of
the ifland where it is moft to be expefted, confidering its fre-
quency on rocks and banks in the fouth of Europe, fee Smith’s
. ^ e fronds al'e obcordate, growing fomewhat imbricated in
thick tufts, attached by denfe fibrous roots, and fpreading very
wide in 3 circular form. In hot or dry weather their margins
are curled in, ihowing the black under fide, when the whole
p ant feems to be withered ; but in moifture they recover their
verdure, and are of a deep ftiining green, fprinkled with whitifh
F i° t aT f0: . f ’, and matked with a flight longitudinal furrow,
which Michehs figure..expreffes, but which Dillenius (fond of
indulging his fpleen towards that excellent author) pretends he
could not perceive. On the under fide of the frond in its terminal
notch ftands a fohtary fructification, confifting of twoblackifh
concave equal valves, enclofing a ball the fize of a fmall vetch
eed, which confifts of a fine fkin invefting innumerable powdery
feeds like thofe of a Lycoperdon, in their ripe ftate dark brown,
u ye ow when yonuger, and before they arrive at maturity
enveloped in a fluid. We know nothing of the flower or mode
ol impregnation, but the genus is certainly diftina enough from
jungermannia -and Marchantia, and we think alfo from Spharo-
carpus. See Withering.