2x2 [ 1538 ]
ANTHOCEROS major.
Broad-leaved Anthoceros.
CRYPTOGAMIA Hepatic*.
G e n . C h a r . Male, sessile warts. Female, Cal. tubular.
Caps, awlshaped, 2-valved. Seeds numerous, rough,
fixed to the valves or to the partition.
S p e c . C h a r . Frond lobed; the segments dilated,
rounded and waved.
Syn. Anthoceros major. Mich. Gen. 11. t. 7. ƒ . 1.
Schmidel. J c .^ l. t. 19.
A. lasvis. Linn. Sp. PI. 1606. Hoffin. Germ. v. 2.
94. Hedw. Theor. 108. t. 27. cop. in With. v. 1.
367. |
A. punctatus. FI. Dan. t, 396, bad.
A. foliis majoribus, minus laciniatis. Dill. Muse. 476.
t. 68. f . 2. P m i P P P
S e n t by Mr. E. Forster from Walthamstow with the preceding,
intermixed with which it is generally reported to
grow; and it seems our English writers have not distinguished
the two species. Their differences were observed by Mr.
J. D. Sowerby.
This has larger leaves than A . punctatus, the lobes of which
are round and entire, not sinuated. Their colour is a darker
green. The male warts, as Schmidel well observes, are more
superficial and much sooner obliterated. Hence Dillenius, seeing
the plant only in fruit, did not observe them; and hence
Linnaeus named it lesvis, supposing it had no warts. But as
these are no less essential to one species than to the other, we
gladly restore Micheli’s original and very expressive name.
We should even have changed punctatus for some other denomination,
had we not always been averse to changing names
without necessity. When they give a false idea they ought to
be altered.
Our specimens of this are later in fructification than the
last.