tbc iC>ilGnm0 ot tbe ^cat 155 



that these do not really start from the uj^per surface, 

 as do the umbrellas, but from among the glassy 

 hairs of the under surface ; then they make a curve 

 among the indentations of the ruffled edge, and 

 pressing upward appear to grow from the edge of 

 the upper surface. Each of these clubs is full of 

 minute pockets, each pocket is full of dust, each 

 atom of dust is like a little whipstock with two 

 lashes ; each of these is dependent on water to ex- 

 pand and set it free, aiid for their convenience the 

 liverwort grows where water abounds. Once visited 

 by water, the lashes of these microscopic whips be- 

 gin to wriggle and snap, and on some convenient 

 puff of air find their way to one of the waiting um- 

 brellas. Here the cases of spores are fertilized, and 

 when ripe become so active and elastic that they 

 leave their cases and sow themselves around by mill- 

 ions. Of these vast numbers it is but the few which 

 survive, and of those that produce other liverworts 

 the produce may be not in its turn fruitful, but sterile. 

 One singular fact about liverworts is this, that they 

 may take quite another fashion for reproducing 

 themselves. Some, instead of the clubs and the 

 umbrellas, produce on the surface little elaborately 

 decorated cups of emerald green, sparkling with 

 atoms of that glassy fibre which moors the under 

 side of the leaf to the rock. In the light, and under 



