HEPATIC^. 1 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 palaeobotany of the Hepaticce is no more satisfactory. Of 

 Palaeozoic 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, 2 M. oolithicm ; 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, algaB or liverworts ; in this case the latter class is the one 

 chosen. 



In speaking of fossil algae reference was made to Fucoides erectus, 

 Leek., from the Yorkshire Oolite, as being possibly a liverwort and 

 not an algal impression. 



The Tertiary Hepatica are more satisfactory, notably some 

 figured by Saporta * from the Paris Basin showing distinct male 

 receptacles. From the Baltic Amber Goppert 4 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 MAECHANTIE^l. 



Vegetative body of the thalloid type, with or without a midrib ; 

 branches of the " thallus " more or less clearly forked. 



1 Palseontographica, vol. viii. p. 160, pi. Ixiii. fig. 9. 



2 Bull. Soc. Sci. Nancy, ser. ii. vol. v. pp. 67, 68, fig. 1. 



3 Mem. Soc. Geol. France, ser. ii. vol. viii. p. 289. 



4 Bernstein, p. 113. 



C 



