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HEPATICS WITH HAND=LENS. 
A. J. Grout. 
There has been a considerable demand for a simple book on the 
Hepatics. To meet this demand I am preparing a treatment of the Hepatics 
similar to that which I have given the mosses in “Mosses with a Hand- 
Lens.” This will be included in the second edition of that book now in pre- 
paration (See adv. in this No. of the Bryologist). This key to the genera is 
printed here with the hope that it will be used and criticised by the readers 
of the Bryologist, and that by the assistance of these criticisms the final 
treatment may be made more helpful. With the Queen %-moh achromatic 
triplet I am able to make out the more minute structures mentioned in the 
keys. Many of them, especially leaf structure, can not be made out satisfac- 
torily unless the objects be mounted in water on a slide in the same man- 
ner as for a compound microscope. The slide should then be held up to the 
strong light, the slide being held with the left hand and the lens with the 
right, the right thumb resting upon that of the left hand so that the focus 
will not be distributed by any unsteadiness of the hands. 
From now until winter closes in I shall be glad to attempt to name 
Hepatics for our subscribers if the speciments be accompanied by a stamp, 
full data for the label, and the best name the collector can give. Fresh 
material only is desired. Almost none of the books give the time of matur- 
ing spores of the different species, and I hope that our readers will send me 
all the data of this sort that they have. Comparatively few illustrations are 
possible in this article, but the figures in the sixth edition of Gray’s Manual 
will prove very helpful. In working up this key I have been surprised to 
find that sterile Hepatics are, as a rule, much easier to identify than sterile 
mosses. Many of the species maturing their spores in early spring have 
the spores and capsules pretty fully developed in the preceding autumn so 
that some of the sporophyte characters are nearly always accessible. 
Hepatics shrivel more than mosses in drying and are best studied while fresh, 
especially the thalloid forms. 
A few of the rare genera are omitted and in the completed treatment 
some of the minute or difficult species will not be included. 
The Germans call the true mosses Laubmoose, meaning leafy mosses, 
and the Hepatics, Leberinoose, or liver mosses, The name Liverwort was 
originally applied to Marchantia because of its fancied resemblance to the 
liver. Because of this resemblance it was supposed to be a specific for all 
liver troubles according to the old doctrine of signatures. From this came 
the Latin name Hepaticae and the German Lebermoose. “Thus does the 
language of ignorant superstition become the adopted language of science.” 
The chief distinctions between Mosses and Hepatics have been noted 
in the Bryologist for April, 1899, but a few additional notes here may prove 
helpful. 
The Hepatics may be leafy stemmed and appear much like mosses, or 
they may consist of a broad, flat and rather thin stem (thallus) which is 
usually closely applied to the substratum. These thalloid Hepatics might 
