52 THALLOPHYTES, BRYINAE. 



several species of the genus Marchantia, which agree in habit with forms 

 now living in the tropics. Two of them have been described by Saporta x 

 from the Eocene tuffs of Suzanne, and are mentioned also by Schimper 2 . 

 Jungermannieae have been found in small fragments in amber. 



The Muscineae no doubt had their representatives in the times of the 

 older formations also. Still it is very remarkable that so few and uncertain 

 traces of the forms then existing have come down to us. Heer 3 has found 

 himself obliged to appeal to the caterpillar-genus Byrrhus in order to prove 

 the existence of Mosses at the period of the Lias. As these creatures live 

 on Mosses at the present day, he concludes that there must have been 

 Mosses at that time also. That the conclusion is open to objection is 

 evident. Renault and Zeiller 4 have however quite recently described 

 remains from the Coal-measures of Commentry, which look like barren 

 Polytrichae or Rhizogoniae, and which they name provisionally Muscites 

 polytrichaceus. 



1 de Saporta (9). a Schimper (1), t. 6. 3 Heer (10). * Zeiller (21). 



