NUTRU^ION; MEMBERS PLANT BODY. /I 



very damp and muddy places and also along the margins of 

 streams, on the mud or upon the surfaces of rocks which are 

 bathed with the water. This is known as Marchantia polymorpha. 

 If we examine the under surface of the marchantia we see 

 numerous hair-like processes which attach the plant to the soil. 

 Under the microscope we see that some of these are exactly like 

 the root hairs of the seedlings which we have been studying, 

 and they here serve the same purpose. Since, however, there are 

 no roots on the marchantia plant, these hair-like outgrowths are 



Fig. 59- 

 Marchantia plant with cupules and gemmae ; rhizoids below. 



usually termed here rhizoids. In marchantia they are of two 

 kinds, one kind the simple ones with smooth walls, and the 

 other kind in which the inner surfaces of the walls are roughened 

 by processes which extend inward in the form of irregular tooth- 

 like points. Besides the hairs on the under side of the thallus 

 we note especially near the growing end that there are two rows 

 of leaf-like scales, those at the end of the thallus curving up 

 over the growing end, and thus serve to protect the delicate 

 tissues at the growing point. 



