ALBERT

Description: This catalogue provides an annotated listing of the liverworts and hornworts from the Guianas (Guyana, Surinam, French Guiana), based on the literature and on new data that have become available in the framework of the “Flora of the Guianas” project. In total 375 species in 93 genera are recorded, including more than 100 species and 28 genera new to the Guianas. A list of synonyms (including 30 new ones), a systematic arrangement of the genera and families, and an index to the collectors are also given.

Description: Oil bodies 7-12 in upper leaf cells, 10-20 in elongated basal leaf cells; globose to ellipsoid, 3-7(-10)x3-5 μm; colourless, coarsely segmented, consisting of c. 15-30 aggregated droplets (Colombia, Boyacá, páramos NW of Belén, Cabeceras Q. El Toral, 3765 m, Cleef 2292e; Ecuador, páramos de El Angel, 17 km. S. of Tulcán, 3350 m, Gradstein, Lanier & Weber s.n.). The presence of segmented oil bodies in Colura patagonica is remarkable because previous studies of living Colura (from Japan) reported homogeneous oil bodies (cf. Schuster & Hattori 1964; Inoue 1974).

Description: Haesselia roraimensis gen. et spec. nov. (Cephaloziaceae) from the foot of Mt. Roraima (Guyana) is described and figured. The new genus has been assigned to the subfamily Trabacelluloideae together with Fuscocephaloziopsis Fulf. and Trabacellula Fulf., two other neotropical genera of Cephaloziaceae with convex leaves.

Description: Chemical analysis of representatives of about thirty genera of Lejeuneaceae has shown that the terpenoid and flavonoid content of the Lejeuneaceae is basically comparable to that of other Hepaticae and quite diversified. Among the terpenoids detected, some are common throughout the family (elemenenes, germacrenes), others are distributed more restrictedly and are indicative of evolutionary relationships among genera, e.g. borneols (Nipponolejeunea), pinguisanines (Acrolejeunea complex), striatenes (Ptychanthoideae, Omphalanthus complex), calamenanes ( Lopholejeunea) and labdanes (Ptychanthus, Tuzibeanthus). Flavonoids are present in smaller amounts than terpenoids and comprise some compounds unique to bryophytes (lutonarin, kaempferol-3-methylether). The genus Omphalanthus stands out by its total inability to biosynthesize flavonoids. At the species level the chemical constitution may vary considerably and in some species evidence for the existence of chemical races was detected.

Description: On 27 May 1976 Peter Arnold Florschütz, bryologist, died at the age of only 53 at De Bilt, Netherlands. Only six weeks prior he had been hospitalized as a result of kidney cancer. His untimely death came as totally unexpected and shocking news to his friends and colleagues all over the world, many of whom had seen him in excellent health the year before at the Botanical Congress in Leningrad. He was a lector of botany and curator of the cryptogamic herbarium at the Institute for Systematic Botany and acting director of the Botanical Gardens of the University of Utrecht, the same institution where he had studied biology from 1941 to 1949. In his professional capacity he had held positions at the Institute for Systematic Botany from 1946 until 1949 as student-assistant and from 1949 on as staff member. Initially under the directorship of his teacher in plant systematics Professor A. A. Pulle, and from 1948 until 1970 under Professor J. Lanjouw’s leadership, the “Flora of Suriname” was being tackled by the staff of the institute. Thus, as a young graduate student, Florschütz was assigned the revision of the mosses of Suriname; a comprehensive and difficult task, because in those post-war years there was a vacuum in European exotic bryology. The heydays, with Herzog in Germany, Brotherus in Scandinavia, Dixon in Great Britain and Thériot and Camus in France were over. At the beginning, Florschütz was entirely dependent on Brotherus’ treatment of the world’s mosses in Engler and Prantl, “Die natürlichen Pflanzenfamilien.” In those years he had run over the leaves of this book for weeks on end in a typical posture, like he used to tell: folded in a chair, book on his lap.

Description: Caudalejeunea grolleana Gradst. spec. nov. from Madagascar is referred to this genus with some doubt because of the absence of gemmiparous branches. Ptychocoleus cristilobus (Steph.) Steph. from S. E. Asia has gemmiparous branches and therefore is a true Caudalejeunea: C. cristiloba (Steph.) comb. nov. This species is remarkable by its complicated ciliate leaflobule and by its polystratose rhizoid-disc. Two subspecies are distinguished: ssp. cristiloba from Burma, Andaman Is., Thailand, and Singapore, and ssp. samoana (Steph.) comb. nov. (Caudalejeunea samoana Steph.) from Samoa. Both C. grolleana and C. cristiloba have a 4-5-carinate perianth, which shows that the trigonous perianth present in most species of Caudalejeunea is not a stable character of this genus.

Description: The new checklist of Dutch liverworts comprises 126 species, 1 subspecies and 5 varieties. Since 1962 seven liverwort species have been added to the flora: Barbilophozia hatcheri, Calypogeia muellerana, Cephalozia pleniceps, Fossombronia incurva, Haplomitrium hookeri, Lophozia perssonii and Plagiochila porelloides. Of twelve species presumed occurrence in the Netherlands needs verification. Nomenclature follows Grolle’s “Verzeichnis der Lebermoose Europas” (Feddes Repert. 87: 171-279. 1976), except for Isopaches, Leiocolea and Microlejeunea, which are maintained as genera and Phaeoceros carolinianus, Cephalozia lammersiana, Chiloscyphus pallescens, Lophozia silvicola and Lophocolea cuspidata. , which are treated as intraspecific taxa.

Description: The new Amazonian liverwort genus Verdoornianthus is considered to be a specialized derivative of the widespread tropical genus Archilejeunea. Differences are the absence of innovations, the dull, suberect leaves, the tristratose rhizoid pad and the larger size of the lobule of the female bracts in Verdoornianthus. There are two species, V. marsupiifolius (Spruce) comb. nov. (Lejeunea marsupiifolia Spruce) from the upstream part of the Rio Negro and V. griffinii sp. nov. from Manaus.

Description: A small set of bryophytes collected on the islands of Malta and Gozo in April-May, 1968, and April, 1969, by K. U. Kramer and L. Y. Th. Westra (Utrecht) was handed to the author for identification. The results are presented here as a supplement to a paper on the vascular plants of the Maltese islands (Kramer et al. 1972). The collections are deposited in the herbarium of the State University of Utrecht. In the past few years many new data have been published on the bryophytes of the Mediterranean islands, cf. Sunding (1967,1971), Koppe (1965), Lübenau & Lübenau (1970), Düll (1967), Gradstein (1971), and Townsend (1965). The liverwort flora of the Mediterranean coasts is being studied thoroughly by Jovet-Ast & Bischler (cf. 1968). Yet the bryophyte flora of the Maltese islands received very little attention in the literature. A brief survey of the main data follows here.