British Hepaticae : containing descriptions and figures of the native species of Jungermannia, Marchantia, and Anthoceros / [Benjamin Carrington].

  • Carrington, B. (Benjamin), 1827-1893.
Date:
1874-1875
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: British Hepaticae : containing descriptions and figures of the native species of Jungermannia, Marchantia, and Anthoceros / [Benjamin Carrington]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    The Gymnomitria are readily distinguished by the rigid julaceous thickly-matted ’ oots, resembling (as Lightfoot well remarks), under the microscope, the texture of a braided lock of hair, or the plaited thong of a whip. The colour, too, is characteristic, silvery-olive, or cream-white, rarely darker gray, or smoky-brown. 1. Gymnomitrium concinnatum, Cor da. Plate I. Pig. 2. Barren shoots erect, simple or fasciculately branched, slightly compressed, thicker and obtuse at the apex; leaves imbricated, ovate, bidentate, sinus and lobes acute, border narrow, membranous. Fer- tile shoots clavate; involucral leaves larger, with reflexed margins, upper ones connivent, irregularly dentate-lobate. Jungermannia concinnata, Lightf. FI. Scot. ii. p. 786 ; Eng. Bot. t. 2229, cd. 2, 1820; Hook. Jung. p. 11, t. iii. ; FI. Danica, t. 1002 ; Muse. Brit. ed. 2, p. 229 ; Br. FI. v. i. p. 110. Gymnomitrium concinnatum, Corda, in Sturm. FI. Germ. Or. xix. xx.'p. 23, t. 4 ; N. ab E. Eur. Leberm. i. p. 115 (et seq.); Gottsche & Bab. Hep. Eur. Ex. n. 423 (c. icon.); Syn. Hepat. p. 3, n. 1. Acolea concinnata, Dum. Syll. p. 76, n. 108, t. 2, f. 15 ; Eecueil d’Obs. Jung. p. 23. Jung, gymnomitrioides, N. ab E. 1. c. ii. p. 52. Hab. Frequent in barren spongy places near the summits of most of the moun- tains of Scotland. More rare in England, and confined to the sub-alpine northern districts :—Helvellyn, Nowell, 1857 ! Cronkley Scar, Teesdale, J. G. Baker ! Snowdon, G. E. Hunt ! Glyder, IF. Wilson ! Cader Idris, Mr. Iialfs. Irish localities refer to G. crenulatum. Fruit, Summer. Found on primary rocks in Northern and Central Europe. Fronds growing in thickly matted tufts, sometimes a foot or more in diameter, “conspicuous at a considerable distance from its silvery hue.” Frimary shoots creeping, flagelliferous, at length ascending, radiculose on the underside, half an inch or more in length, simple, or bearing a few suberect branches, which are thinner and cylindrical helow, but compressed and incrassated near the apex (f. 2). From the upper part of the old shoots innovations are fre- quently produced, which are at first slender, but at length attain the ordinary form. Sometimes the stems assume a remarkable interrupted appearance from repeated prolification. Flagella} creeping, densely matted together, rigid, filiform, of a brownish colour; either naked or squamose at the extremity, at length ascending, and producing true leaves. From the densely csespitose habit of the older patches, the ori- ginal ramification is imperfectly seen, since the rhizomatous shoots and lower portions of the stem soon decay, and crumble away, leaving only the upper even-topped stratum visible and intact.