MARCHANTIA hemifphaerxca.
Hemijpbeerical Marchantia.
C R Y P T 0 G A M I A Alga.
G en. Char. Male. Calyx falver-fhaped, with numerous
a n th e ra imbedded in its dilk.
Female. Cal. peltate, flowering beneath. Capfules
burfting at their fummit. Seeds attached to elaftic
fibres.
Spec. Ch ar. Calyx o f the female flowers hemifphagri-
cal, cloven into about five oval fegments. Stalks
naked at the bafe.
Sy n . Marchantia hemilphzerica. L in n . Sp. P I. 1604.
H u d f. 520. W ith . 885. L ig h tf. 796.
Lichen pileatus parvus, foliis crenatis. R a il Syn.
114. D ill. M ufc. 519. t. 75. f . 2.
O n the banks of rivers and ditches, about crevices of rocks,
in damp but not always thady places, moftly in the mountainous
or northern counties, though our fpecimens were fent
(with the following kind) from Norfolk by the Rev. Mr. R. B.
Francis, F.L.S. of Holt, a gentleman from whofe very accurate
examinations of the neighbouring genus Jungermannia great
information is to be expedited.—It is perennial, producing its
fructification in March.
Fronds lobed, fpreading, and creeping by means of numerous
flender fibres originating from the prominent mid-rib;
their upper furface is granulated, of a fine green, often purple
when expofed to much fun, efpecially about the margin, and
the under fide is generally of a dark purple hue. Female
fructification in green hemifphaerical heads, cut into about five
oval fegments in the margin, and Handing on Ihort (talks, which
are totally deftitute o f any bradtese or membranes at their bafe.
The feeds are black, and are produced in black capfules with
fibres from the under fide of the head or calyx. The male
flowers we have not feen, nor have we found them defcribed.
Micheli figures what appear to be cups of young buds like
thofe in the more common Marchantia. See our t. 210,