434 SOUTH A1'RRA>4 HliPATIC.?!. 



of Hepatics, a circumstance which, so far as we know, could 

 only occur through wind transportation and the continual free 

 distribution of spores, even at the cost of very many lost through 

 failure to hnd a suitable nidus. 



But the subject of trans-oceanic migration is further com- 

 plicated by the fact that while the more or less xerophilous forms 

 usually have small spores, destitute of chlorophyll but possessed 

 of a special protective covering, often papillose and sometimes 

 more or less ribbed, there are other He})atics. especially those of 

 hygrophilous nature, whose spores are tliin-walled and chloro- 

 phyllose, and usually germinate as soon as mature, sometimes 

 even l^efore they are shed from the parent plant, and still some 

 of these are widely distributed. 



Wide exotic distribution is, however, more frequently the 

 case with aquatic or amphibious plants, even in the higher 

 Phanerogamic orders, than it is among other and particularly 

 xeroph\tic plants. 



In connection with this and with ihe whole ((uestion of 

 evohition of mosses and Hepaticse from a common source. Goebel 

 sums up the matter thus :* — From the varying vegetative organs 

 " we gain the impression that the Hepaticcc, apart from the 

 Anthoccroiccc. are a younger group, still in a condition of flux 

 as compared with the older more hxed Musci," but the structure 

 of the sexual organs " appears to he an inherited portion from 

 common ancestors. In other words, if we assume a descent in 

 general, it follows that the vegetative organs must have been 

 greatl}- changed in different directions, while the sexual organs 

 have altered but little." 



South Africa was early in tb.e held in regard to the study 

 of Hepticre. for wdiile I-innseus. in his " Species Plantarum " 

 (1764). had only 2^ species from the whole w-orld, Thunljerg 

 added some from South Africa in his " Prodomus Florse 

 Capensis " ( 1 794- 1 800 ) . 



During the first half of the nineteenth century further 

 r]jecimens were collected in South .\frica, mostly near Capetown, 

 by Bergius, Breutel. Menzies. Mund, Ecklon, Drege, Krauss. 

 Gueinzius, and Dr. Pappe, \vhich were sent to Europe and 

 classified and described by experts there in many publications 

 and under many synonyms. 



Chaos w^as reduced into order by the publication in 1845- 

 1847 of Gottsche, Lindenburg and Nees' " Synopsis Hepati- 

 carum," in which the Hepatic?e of the world, as then known, 

 were dealt with, and that work still holds an honoured place, 

 and is indispensable to the student of South African Hepaticde. 



More recent collectors include Rev. A. E. Eaton (Cape), 

 Iverson (Knysna), Bertelsen (Natal), Rehmann, Dr. Wilms, 

 IMacLea. Bachmann, etc., whose specimens have been dealt 

 with and new ones described, by Mitten, Pearson, Schiffner, and 

 Stephani ; Cavers recently described the interesting Riella 



•■'Goebel, " Org^anography of Plants," (1905) 2, <S. 



