124 MOSS ALLIES. 



gathered it with its round capsules in abundance in York- 

 shire, Kent, and Herefordshire. The Many-fingered 

 species (J. multifida) is also found in the Chase wood 

 along with the preceding one. It is distinguished by 

 having the frond deeply and frequently cut. Billy Bank 

 wood furnished us our first specimens of the Forked and 

 Downy Liverworts (J. furcata and pubescens,^. 4). In 

 general form they are nearly alike — their fronds strap- 

 shaped and branched, their capsules small, standing on a 

 short thick footstalk, and proceeding from a hairy veil. 

 The principal difference is in the one species being smooth, 

 and the other covered with down. They grow in dense 

 masses at the roots of trees, the fronds being then nearly 

 upright and interlacing ; or upon the bole of trees, when 

 the fronds adhere closely to the bark, and the whole 

 plant looks like a silky covering. 



Such is the natural arrangement of the true liverworts, 

 simple and easy of observation, and attractive from the 

 exquisite fineness and delicacy of the members. 



Another family in the Hepatica order is that of the 

 Merchantia. Here the foliage is frondose, and palpably 

 cellular, the fronds attaching themselves by roots to the 

 ground. The fructification is contained in vessels 

 placed under a round covering, which is raised on a 

 long footstalk, and cut into numerous segments. 

 Children call these heads of fructification, " little 

 umbrellas." The Variable Marchantia I first found in 

 fruit, by the side of a mill-dam at Vallis in Somerset- 

 shire, but I have since seen it in much greater beauty 

 in the charcoal pits in Herefordshire. The year after the 



