368 



THE POPULAR EDUCATOR. 



ally grasses, rushes, etc., are capable of growing ; thus are 

 formed morasses, which, by a further progress of vegetation, 

 become at length fertile meadows. While thus slowly operating 

 to increase the extent of the habitable world, their influence 

 directly and indirectly affects in various ways but more fre- 

 quently, perhaps, unseen and unsuspected the welfare and 

 interest of those who are too apt to despise their apparent 

 insignificance, and too proud to stoop to the examination of 

 their surpassing beauty." Of the species which render their 

 feeble aid in 

 thus converting 

 water into land, 

 are some of the 

 little frondose 

 scale-mosses, 

 and also some 

 of the other 

 tribes of the 

 HepaticcB. The 

 broad - leaved 

 scale-moss (Jun- 

 germannia epi- 

 phylla,Fig.291), 

 which is de- 

 picted of the 

 natural size, is 

 one of these. It 

 is frequent on 

 moist heaths, 

 and in damp 

 woods and 

 thickets, espe- 

 cially by the 

 sides of wells 

 and rivulets. 

 The slippery 

 scale-moss (Jun- 

 germannia pin- 

 guis) is another 

 of this descrip- 

 tion. 



We next come 

 to the family 

 Marchantice, 

 named from 

 Nicholas Mar- 

 chant, a noted 

 botanist. It is 

 a pretty and sin- 

 gular tribe, its 

 English name, 

 liverwort, being 

 derived from a 

 fancied resem- 

 blance to the 

 human liver ; 

 this resem- 

 blance was sup- 

 posed to indi- 

 cate some spe- 

 cial virtue in the 

 plant, as con- 

 nected with that 

 organ, and in 

 olden time itwas 

 coHsidered as a 

 specific for jaundice and other such disorders. 



either four or eight in number. Besides this normal fruit, 

 gemma;, or detached buds, of quite a different structure, are 

 found on these plants. These are small leafy bodies which 

 spontaneously separate from the parent plant, and when mature 

 are washed out by the rain, and carried abundantly to new 

 localities, where they spring up and grow very rapidly. The 

 form of the thalli or fronds of the Marchantice is thus quaintly 

 described by the good old herbalist Gerard : " Liverwort is a 

 kinde of mosse which spreadeth itself abroad upon the ground, 



having many 

 uneven or crum- 

 pled leaves ly- 

 ing over one 

 another, as the 

 scales of fishes 

 do; greene 

 above, browne 

 underneath." 

 These fronds 

 ara variously 

 lobed, their co- 

 lour is a living 

 green, and when 

 broadly spread 

 over a damp 

 bank or the wall 

 of a fountain 

 or reservoir of 

 water, they form 

 a beautiful ob- 

 ject. The Ger- 

 mans have the 

 same name for 

 the tribe as our- 

 selves, and call 

 it Leberkraut. 

 The conical 

 liverwort (Fig. 

 292) is common. 

 It is of a yel- 

 lowish - green, 

 tinged with 

 brown ; the pe- 

 duncle, or fruit- 

 stalk, is white, 

 touched with 

 pink, and fleshy. 

 It springs from 

 a concave disc, 

 usually situated 

 in the marginal 

 clefts of the 

 fronds. Thespo- 

 rules are large, 

 of a dark olive 

 hue. The fronds, 

 when bruised, 

 send forth a pe- 

 culiar fragrance 

 like bergamot. 



The other ex- 

 ample given in 

 onr illustration 

 (Fig. 293) is of 

 the star-headed 

 liverwort (Ifctr- 



SPIKAL FILAMENTS OB ELATERS OF HEPATICiE. 289. THE PEAK-SHAPED SCALE-MOSS. 290. THE 

 DWABP SCALE-MOSS. 291. THE BKOAD- LEAVER SCALE-MOSS. 292. CONICAL LIVERWORT. 293. 



STAR-HEADED LIVERWORT (MARCHANTIA POLYMORPHA). 



grow on earth or the bark of trees in damp places, spreading 

 over the ground in the form of a green incrustation, from the 

 lower surface of which root-fibres are developed. This crust or 

 thallus is entirely composed of cellular tissue, the cells of the 

 outer layer being closer in texture than the rest, and forming a 

 thick leathery cuticle, in which are large stomata. The fruit 

 consists of a head of spore-cases, radiating from a central disc 

 called the shield, like the spokes of a wheel. The head is 

 mounted on a long stalk springing from a bell-shaped sheath, 

 which starts from the surface of the frond or thallus, usually at 

 the margin. Tho spore-cases or thecse open by irregular fissures, | 



The Marchantice ; chantia polymorpTia), a species even more common than the 



conical. Of the other genera which the order Hepaticce com- 

 prises we shall say but little, as they are few and, in comparison, 

 insignificant. 



Targionia hypophylla at first sight resembles a Marcfiantia, 

 but differs in its fructification, which is globose and nearly 

 buried in the margin of the frond ; and this, with Anthoceros 

 punctatus, Sphcerocarpus terrestris, and a few species of the little 

 genus called Riccia (on which, as they are for the most part 

 little known and not of much general interest, we shall not 

 enter particularly), complete the number of the genera con- 

 tained in this order. 



