118 MCALLISTER: MORPHOLOGY OF THALLOCARPUS 
actae sunt in substantia earum ut maculis nigris apparentibus; sporis fusco-nigris 
valde muricatis. 
‘‘On moist ground, South Carolina, Ravenel (In Herb. Sulliv., 1849). North 
Carolina, Curtis (1. c., 1853). ‘Montand aprés Marseille’ (Herb. Lanning, ‘ex 
Herb. Torrey’).”’ 
Somewhat later (10) Lindberg called attention to the fact that 
the generic name Cryptocarpus was already in use, being used as 
the name of a genus of the Chenopodiaceae as well as for a genus 
in the Orthotrichiaceae. He proposed the name Thallocarpus 
which is still in use. He makes no mention of having examined 
any plants and apparently on the authority of Austin’s description 
places the genus in the Jungermanniaceae, class Cleistocarpae. 
In 1877 Trevisan (14) proposed the name Angiocarpus as 4 
substitute for Cryptocarpus. He placed the genus in the order 
Ricciaceae, tribe Riccieae, with Ricciella, Riccia and Ricciocarpus- 
Austin in 1875 (2) referring to Lindberg’s change of the 
generic name to Thallocarpus* states that ‘‘the plant evidently 
belongs, with Sphaerocarpus (its nearest ally), to the Jungermani- ; 
aceae, ’ 
Later he refers again to Thallocarpus (3) having in the mean- 
time studied fresh living material collected for him by Capt. John 
Donnell Smith in Florida. From this material he notes the strik 
ing similarity to Riccia ‘‘in which genus” he says ‘‘it should 
probably be included as a subgenus.”’ He states that the adhesion 
of the spores of the tetrad “appears to be the only character im 
which it is decidedly different from Riccia.”” It is from this 
material that he determines the dioecious character of the liver 
wort. 
This seems to be the literature that Schiffner has had acces* 
to in his account of Thallocarpus in Die natiirlichen Pflanzen 
familien (11, p. 50). It is therefore surprising to find that Austin’s | 
latest reference to the plant has been overlooked or ignored and 
this genus placed in the subclass Jungermanniales and family 
Sphaerocarpoideae; in a family, the sporophyte of which is char- 
acterized by the presence of a foot and of sterile, “ stairkereiche 
Nahrzellen.”’ 
SA re ap 
Gis ae 
* Although Lindberg proposed the name Thallocar pus he does not seem tO agit 
suggested the combination T. Curtisii. Austin makes use of this combination age 
1875 but does not cite Lindberg as authority. 
