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Amnions' Liverworts of West Virginia* 



Edwin B. Matzke 



Although many botanists, both amateur and professional, are 

 rather intimately acquainted with certain groups of the lower 

 plants, such as the mosses and lichens, very few seem to have much 

 knowledge of the liverworts, except perhaps of Marchantia. Over 

 large areas of the United States, including the northeast, other 

 hepatics are much more abundant than Marchantia, which after 

 all is hardly a "typical liverwort" — being in many ways the most 

 specialized of the entire group. Its popularity seems to rest largely 

 on the very beautiful set of charts illustrating its structure and 

 life history made by Kny many years ago and on the dearth of 

 adequate treatment of the other genera of liverworts due to a 

 paucity of books dealing with the group. 



This situation is being remedied, however, and "The Liver- 

 worts of West Virginia" is a welcome addition to botanical libra- 

 ries. West Virginia is obviously a happy hunting ground for the 

 hepatics. Its rugged surface, its mountains, hills, and valleys, its 

 waterfalls, streams, and swamps, together with its natural forest 

 climax, all combine to furnish the types of habitats which the 

 various members of this group of plants require. Consequently, 

 although this is a manual devoted modestly to the hepatics of a 

 single state, it really has a much wider application. For instance, 

 all the genera of liverworts but two, and most of the species 

 described by Howe in the later editions of Grout's "Mosses With 

 a Hand Lens," are found in West Virginia, and as would be 

 expected, there are many additional forms given for that state not 

 included in "Grout." 



The keys to both the genera and the species are based largely 

 on vegetative characters ; although many of the liverworts fruit 

 abundantly, their sporophytes are more delicate than those of the 

 mosses and do not persist ; consequently such keys are especially 

 helpful. 



The scheme of classification used is that proposed by Evans 

 (1939). The acrogynous Jungermanniales are considered first, 

 then the anacrogynous forms, followed by the Marchantiales and 



* A Manual of the Liverworts of West Virginia. By Nelle Ammons. 

 164 pp. 26 plates. University Press, Notre Dame, Ind. 1940. $1.75. 



