NOTES AND LITERATURE 



THE CLASSIFICATION OF THE LIVERWORTS 



Botanists have long felt that the classification of the liver- 

 worts was very much in need of revision, and any serious attempt 

 to establish a classification that will better express the real inter- 

 relationship of the Hepaticae is very welcome. The valuable 

 series of papers recently published by Dr. Cavers/ on the classi- 

 nVation <»f the Bryophytes, is a distinct contribution to the sub- 

 ject, and is a decided advance over any classification that has 

 been proposed hitherto. 



Dr. Cavers is well known to students of the liverworts through 

 a series of papers of exceptional merit, published at intervals 

 during the past few years. The present publication presents at 

 length the conclusions he has reached as a result of his studies 

 on these important plants. 



It is still too early to expect a definitive classification of the 

 liverworts, as there are still a good many important types whose 

 development is incompletely known, and it is also highly prob- 

 able that there are still forms awaiting discovery which we may 

 reasonably expect will throw light upon some relationships which 

 are still obscure. 



Dr. Cavers has made a careful study of the work of the most 

 recent investigators, as well as of the older standard works, and 

 while one may take exception to a few of his deductions, still, as 

 a whole, one will agree with his main conclusions, and will 

 welcome this contribution of his as a decided advance in our 

 knowledge of the inter-relationships of the Bryophytes. The 

 Bryophytes (or "mosses," using this term in its widest sense) 

 are forms of peculiar interest to students of plant-morphology, 

 especially to those engaged in the problems of the origin of the 

 hiirhor types of plants; since the Bryophytes occupy an inter- 

 mediate place between the aquatic alga> and the ferns which are 

 typically land plants. While there is decided difference of 

 opinion as to how the ferns originated, the weight of evidence 

 wtbVS In !" reIationshi P s of the Bryophyta," by Frank Cavers, D.Sc, 

 fgn Th y tol °9^t, Eeprint No. 4), Cambridge; at the Botany School, 



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