The English flora - SeaweedAfrica

100 HEPATICtE, [Anthoceros.
same texture and colour as the frond, varying much in dimensions ; the
largest and oldest about the size of mustard-seed, truncated at the top
and perforated ; the aperture entire at the margin. Within these at the
base, both in the smaller and larger perianths, are sometimes 2—5 extremely
minute, linear, pistilliform bodies; at other times, one of these
is oblong, swollen and lengthened, exactly like the young germ en
of a Jungermannia. Again, much more rarely, I have found one of
these pistilliform bodies enlarged into a perfectly sphaerical form, tipped
with a short, slender style, the whole not larger than an eighth of the
perianth : the contents of so small a body I could not satisfactorily ascertain,
but they appeared, when pressed out, to consist of a pulpy sub-
stance.
3. AnthoCeros. Linn. Anthoceros.
Capsule pedunculated, linear, 2-valved, with a central columella
to which the seeds are attached and arising from a tubular
perianth. {Muse. Brit. ed. 2. p. 216.) Name; «v0o ? , a flower,
and xggae?, a horn : from the horn-like fructification.
1. A. punctdtus, Linn, (dotted Anthoceros); frond obovatooblong
flattish waved and cut at the margin. Linn. Sp. Pi.
p. 1606. E. Bot. t. 1537. Muse. Brit ed. 2.p. 216. Lindenb.
Syn. Hepat.p. US.—Dill. Muse. I. 68./. I.—A. icevis, Linn.
Sp. PI. p. 1606. Schm. Ic. t. 19. Lindenb. Syn. Hepat. p. 112.
—A. major, Mich. Gen. t. l.f. 1. E. Bot.t. 1538.—Dill. Muse.
um.f.z.
Sides of ditches and water-courses, in very moist situations. Fr. Spring.
— Fronds from one-half to three-fourths of an inch long, procumbent,
often forming orbicular imbricated patches, radiating from the centre
each more or less obovato-oblong, plane or slightly waved above, the
extremities somewhat dichotomously divided into short, rounded segments,
which are waved and broadly notched at the margin, sometimes
even laciniated, segments always obtuse. Texture between fleshy and
membranaceous, inclining to the former, generally of a darkish green
colour, paler at the margins. Cellules distinct, oblong, with a pore in
the centre :—there is no midrib, the fibrous radicles springing from
various parts of the under surface of the fronds; male andfemale fructification
generally abundant on the same individual. Anthers exactly
sphaerical, shortly pedicellated, of a yellowish-orange colour, included in
cup-shaped, deeply and sharply laciniated receptacles, on the upper sur-
face of the fronds. The female fructifications, of which there are several
on each frond, appear first in the form of conical tubercles, similar to the
frond in colour and texture, and consisting in fact of the epidermis. In
a short time, these, which we have called perianths, attain the height of
2 lines, become cylindrical, opening at the mouth with a truncated, rather
jagged orifice; whence proceeds a linear, subulate, slightly curved capsule,
which rising about 2 inches and elevated on a succulentfruitstalk scarcely
longer than the perianth, bursts from the extremity into two narrow
linear valves, which are partially twisted round each other. The opening
of the capsule presents a central filament ov columella, equal in length
to the capsule, and covered with numerous roundish, opaque, brown
seeds, each of which is marked by lines, indicating its being composed
of 3 or 4 smaller bodies :— these are attached by means of short, simple
or forked, rather flat, brownish, semipellucid stalks, which have no appearance
of a double spiral helix, as figured by Schmidel.
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