504 Lang . — On Apospory in 
to the corresponding phenomenon since discovered in Lepto- 
sporangiate Ferns, it may be pointed out that in these plants 
also the sexual generation may arise from an uninjured 
sporophyte, or its development may require to be induced by 
laying pieces of a leaf on damp soil. 
Although discovered in Mosses and subsequently found in 
a number of Ferns, apospory is not, so far as I know, hitherto 
recorded for any Liverwort. While working in the laboratory 
of the Peradeniya Botanic Gardens it occurred to me that 
similar treatment of the sporogonia of Anthoceros laevis , L., 
which grows abundantly in the gardens, might induce apospory. 
Accordingly a number of young, unopened sporogonia were 
taken, and the portion projecting from the calyptra cut up 
into lengths of about 5 mm. The pieces were laid on damp sand 
and covered with a bell-glass. By the end of a month they 
were more or less decayed, and of a yellowish-green tint. 
From the cut ends and sometimes from the surface, however, 
small outgrowths of a deep green colour could be seen to 
have arisen (PI. XXVII, Fig. 1). The culture underwent but 
little change during the next fortnight, when it had to be 
stopped owing to my leaving Peradeniya for some months. 
None of the new growths had assumed the flattened form 
of the thallus, but their resemblance to the latter in its early 
stages and the origin of rhizoids from them (Fig. 2) sufficiently 
demonstrated that it was a case of apospory. Further, both 
in the position in which the new growths appear and in the 
method by which their development was induced, this case 
of apospory in a Liverwort corresponds closely with those 
recorded for the Mosses. 
Before describing the pieces of sporogonium from this 
culture, some points in the normal structure of the corre- 
sponding region must be briefly referred to. As in most 
species of Anthoceros , the epidermis consists of long narrow 
cells ; within this the wall of the sporogonium consists of 
about five layers of oblong parenchymatous cells, about four 
times as long as broad ; the spores with the intervening 
trabeculae surround the columella, which is composed of 
