HEPATIC. 7 
organs, and these alone are not often trustworthy guides: there is 
an exception in the case of Gymnostomum ferrugineum,' figured by 
Ludwig, where the capsule is preserved with portions of the moss- 
plant stem. 
The paleobotany of the Hepatice is no more satisfactory. Of 
Paleozoic liverworts there appear to be no records preserved. 
A single specimen of a plant with dichotomously lobed flat fronds 
has been described by Fliche and Bleicher as a new species of 
Marchantia,? M. oolithicus ; it was discovered in Lower Oolite rocks 
in the neighbourhood of Nancy. The authors of the species point 
out that such forked laminar structures may be referred to certain 
lichens, alge or liverworts; in this case the latter class is the one 
chosen. 
In speaking of fossil alge reference was made to Fucordes erectus, 
Leck., from the Yorkshire Oolite, as being possibly a liverwort and 
not an algal impression. 
The Tertiary Hepatice are more satisfactory, notably some 
figured by Saporta* from the Paris Basin showing distinct male 
receptacles. From the Baltic Amber Goppert* has determined 
various examples of the Bryophyta, and instituted the generic term 
Jungermannites to denote the existence of certain supposed 
hepatics which resemble the Jungermannia rather than the 
Marchantia section. 
Class HEPATIC. 
The vegetative dorsiventral body is in the form of a thalloid 
creeping structure (Thalloid Liverworts), or a creeping stem with 
thin leaves which are always without a midrib (Foliose Liver- 
worts). Protonema feebly developed. 
Order MARCHANTIEZ. 
Vegetative body of the thalloid type, with or without a midrib ; 
branches of the ‘thallus ’’ more or less clearly forked. 
1 Paleontographica, vol. viii. p. 160, pl. Ixiii. fig. 9. 
2 Bull. Soc. Sci. Nancy, sér. ii. vol. v. pp. 67, 68, fig. 1. 
3 Mém. Soc. Géol. France, sér. ii. vol. viii. p. 289. 
* Bernstein, p. 113. 
