M ARCH ANTIACEiE 



325 



Ovula devoloped by fecundation into an inner membrane 

 containing the seeds. Anthers in the frondose typical species 

 immersed in separate apartments of the frond ; this by its 

 growth ruptures, but never detaches the pistillum from its 

 base, except in Riccia, in which the capsule is formed from 

 the original pistillum. 



Capsule frequently with fibrous cells in its inner layer, hav_ 

 ing no organic connection with the axis, with no operculum, 

 inner membrane, or columella. 



The genus Marchantia is the typical genus of Hepaticae : it 

 reaches that degree of perfection as to develope its male or- 

 gans in a disc, similar to that of the female. 



Nothing can prove the perfection, i. e. complication indicated 

 by the cuticles of Marchantia and other genera, clearer than 

 the fact, that a young gemma of Marchantia is without any 

 cutis, and emits its first roots indifferently from either sur- 

 face, this therefore shews that the frondose ecuticulate species 

 are lower in the scale of organisation. 



Of all the genera I know, Riccia is the least developed, yet 

 in its fruit, it has more affinities with Phaenogams than any 

 other plants of the family. 



Unless the elaters germinate, I cannot imagine any special 

 use they may be of, because no means are visible to further 

 the association with the sporula — the only organs for which 

 they can with reason be supposed to be provided. They are 

 subject to precisely the same contingencies as the sporula at 

 the dehiscence of the fruit, a period when they are in their 

 state of greatest perfection. I am by no means sure whether 

 the scales protecting the radicles are in all cases originally 

 continuous with that intro-marginal portion of cutis, which is 

 entire, or if they are in their free ends capable of growth, which 

 is not improbable, because in no. 25 (of the preceding list, p. 

 297) these ends do not only, not correspond with the inner 

 margin of the intro-marginal cuticle, but actually extend 

 beyond the margin of the frond, giving it a ciliated appear- 

 ance. 



