1 
CHAPTERS IN THE EARLY HISTORY OF 
HEPATICOLOGY.—III. 
By MarsHatt A. Howe. 
The Ex¢pacis! of Fabius Columna is a work of some impor- 
tance in the History of Hepaticology, inasmuch as we here 
find the beginning of the written history of three species, 
representing as many genera, namely, Conocephalus conicus, 
Targionia hypophylla, and a Pellia which Lindberg refers 
to endivicefolia rather than to epiphylla. One page is given 
to good figures of the plant described, rendering the deter- 
minations doubly sure. Columna describes Conocephalus in 
this manner: 
’ “Tt arises on wet, shady rocks, especially those facing the 
north, and adheres by very fine silky roots, which are abun- 
dant under the leaves. The latter are a finger’s breadth in 
width and twice that or more in length, green above ora 
little yellowish, sealy like the skin of a serpent or of a snail 
[Limax], a small elevated point being visible in the middle 
of each scale. It does not produce a flower so far as we have 
been able to observe unless it is identical with the fruit. It 
bears from the slightly cleft, sinuous, lunulate extremity of 
the leaf, a white, smooth, firm, juicy, diaphanous stem, of the 
thickness of a rush and four inches long, above which rests a 
small pileus like that of a fungus, divided below into five 
parts, under which the fruit is contained. The pileus 
is at first green, a little inclining to yellow, afterwards 
becomes yellow, and ends with being reddish; these 
lower divided parts bursting asunder show the black 
fruit and when opened the frnit falls as a black-purple dust, 
though it has hitherto been juicy and green. This sooty 
dust we have learned to consider as seed. It sends up its 
1Minus cognitarum rariorumque nostro celo orientium stirpium 
Ex¢pacrs; Rome, 1616. I am indebted to the courtesy of Mr. C. H. 
Wright of the Royal Gardens at Kew for a transcript of Columna’s treat- 
ment of “Lichen” and to the Director, Dr. W. T. Thiselton-Dyer, by 
whose kind permission the extract was sent. 
Exytura, Vol. IIL, No. 1, [2 January, 1895.] 
