10 The Botanical Gazette. {January, 
carpus, is known from the United States, and this genus is 
in some respects the most primitive of all known Hepatica, 
the discovery of an allied genus is of more than ordinary in- 
terest as perhaps throwing some light on the affinities of the 
lower Hepatice. 
The older thallus is more or less wedge-shaped, but often 
nearly orbicular in outline, about 5—7™ in length by 3-4™ in 
breadth (figs. 1-3). It is usually simple, but occasionally 
once dichotomous (fig. 3). | The body of the thallus is thick 
and fleshy, passing quite abruptly into the margin, or wings, 
which consist of more or less regularly lobed lamine com- 
posed for the most part of asingle layer of cells. These mar- 
ginai lamina are sometimes arranged quite regularly, so that 
they recall the similar leaf-like laminz of Fossombronia; in- 
deed in some cases the general aspect of the plant is not un- 
like the common Californian Fossombronia longiseta. In ad- 
dition to these marginal lobes, there are numerous dorsal 
laminar outgrowths, which may almost completely conceal 
the dorsal surface of the thallus (fig. 2, a.), and give it a very 
characteristic appearance. The plant is attached to the ground 
by numerous colorless rhizoids, and from the ventral surface, 
especially near the apex, are jointed, glandular hairs, which 
curve over the growing-point, and are like those characteristic 
of most of the thallose Jungermanniacez. 
If the old plants are given plenty of moisture, growth is 
resumed, and the apex of the thallus rapidly grows out into — 
the fresh green shoot first observed. The marginal lobes of 
these secondary growths are narrower and longer than in nor- 
mally developed specimens, due, no doubt, to the excess of 
moisture where they were grown. 
The specimens were too old for a satisfactory study of the — 
