1 82 THE PLANT WORLD. 



flowered Ash, vSilky-leaved Cornel and Flame-colored Azalea. As to 

 the troublesome and too common participial endings, such as heart- 

 leaved, purple-flowered, rough-fruited, white-barked, big-coned, &c., 

 the participle is changed into a substantive and added as a suflix with- 

 out hyphen; we thus obtain such names as Heartleaf Willow, Small- 

 fruit Hickory, Slenderstalk Sedge, Bigcone Pine, Purpleflower Rasp- 

 berry, White bark Maple. Such names look somewhat unfamiliar, but 

 are not at all confusing, nor against the genius of the language which 

 tends to reduce involved participles to the more direct substantives, 

 as in Shagbark Hickory, Beardtongue, Coneflower, Bunchberry, &c. ; 

 they are acceptable to the eye, quickl}^ apprehended, easily remem- 

 bered, and, therefore, destined, I believe, to become established in 

 English nomenclature. 



STUDIES AMONG OUR COMMON HEPATICyE. 

 By Alexander W. Evans. 



III. Lepidozia reptans (L.) Dumort. 



IN Lepidozia reptans again we have a species which is at once com- 

 mon and easily recognized. It is a plant of the damp woods and 

 grows on rotten logs and on shaded banks and rocks in moun- 

 tainous and hilly places throughout our northern regions and 

 those of Europe and Asia. A peculiar habit of the plant is the way 

 in which its prostrate stems creep over tufts of mosses and other 

 hepatics; the tufts thus encroached upon are in time completely 

 covered by the Lepidozia, and as their supply of light is cut off, they 

 become feeble and finally perish. The prostrate stems are remark- 

 able for their flattened appearance and for their regiilar, pinnate 

 branching; as foothold is gained, they become crowded together and 

 more irregularly branched, although even in this condition their tips 

 remain flattened. It is among these crowded patches, and particu- 

 larly those which grow on rotten logs, that we must look for fruiting 

 specimens, the plants on shaded rocks being almost invariably feebly 

 developed and sterile. Our species varies in color according to its 

 exposure to the light ; in deep woods it is very dark green but becomes 

 pale green or whitish as the light grows more intense. Strong sun- 

 light, however, is fatal to it, and where woods have been cleared away 

 the plants first bleach out and then die. 



The stems are much firmer in texture than those of Lophocolea 

 heteropJiylla (which exhibits similar variations in color), and in a moist- 

 ened tuft it is possible to seize one of them with the forceps and to 

 draw it out without injury. They are long and slender, often attain- 



