Vi u
MARGHANTIA polymorpha.
Star-headed Marchantia.
C R T P TO GAM I A Alga.
G en. Char. Male. Calyx falver-lhaped, with nurne-t
" rous anther a imbedded in its diik.
Female. Cal. peltate, flowering beneath. Capfules
burfting at their fummit. Seeds attached to elaftiq
fibres.
Spec. Char. Calyx o f the female flowers cloven into
about ten narrow fegments,
Syn. Marchantia polymorpha. Linn. Sp. PI. 1603.
Hudf. FI. An. 5x9. With. Bot. Arr. v. 3. 158,
Sibth. Oxon. 313. Re lb. Cant. 420.
Lichen petraus latifolius, five Hepatica fontana.
Rati Syn. 115.
L. fontanus major, ftellatus tequ£, ac umbellatus, e t
cyathophorus. Dill. Mufc. 523. t. j 6 . f . 6.
jS L. domefticus minor, &c. Ibid. 527. t. j j . f . 7.
V e r y common in damp places, about fprings, wells, and
fliady moift court-yards. Gardeners find it-troublefome in
over-running the mould of their garden-pots. It is perennial,
flowering about midfummer.
The fronds fpread horizontally, creeping on the ground by
means of denfe fibrous radicles; they are bluntly lobed, of a
dark fhining green, and more or lefs reticulated. In the variety
& they are fmaller, more opake, and fcarcely reticulated at all.
Their upper furface is ftudded with feveral pale dentated cups,
half-filled with little green lenticular bodies, which are young
plants, analogous to the Hem-bulbs of the Orange Lily, and
other viviparous plants, though miftaken by Dillenius and Lin-
nseus for feeds. Hedwig has firft afcertained the true nature
of the fructification, the parts of which are indeed faithfully
delineated by Dillenius, but he did not underftand their
ceconomy. We have followed Hedwig’s opinion, confirmed
by obfervation, in the character given above. The hairs with
which the feeds are connected appear from their elafticity to
have a kind of fpontaneous motion, and are well worth notice.