216 Shiv Ram Kashyap. 
and the smallest seventeen. They are, however, very regularly 
placed. The capsule opens by eight valves, and eight elaters are 
attached near the eight lines of dehiscence at the junction of the 
thick-walled and thin-walled parts of the capsule wall. The rest 
are arranged below these towards the base of the capsule at short 
distances forming eight rows. All the elaters are directed to the 
centre of the capsule. As the length of an elater is rather more 
than the diameter of the capsule in its apical and basal part it is 
probable that they help in the dehiscence of the capsule in addition 
to the dispersal of the spores by their hygroscopic movements. The 
small number of the elaters can also be explained by their adhesion 
to the capsule wall. It would not be easy for a small form like 
Cyathodium to spare material to form numerous elaters, but if the 
elaters were fixed at one end they would be as efficient as if they 
were numerous and free. 
Two abnormalities which are met with in this species may also be 
described here. (1) In the capsule here and there small clumps of a 
sticky substance were found in which some abortive spores were 
imbedded. These masses were often found adhering to the wall of 
the capsule and appeared as white patches from the outside in 
spirit material. (2) In one specimen a curious condition was 
observed. On the ventral surface behind the apex (but not at the 
apex) of a large fan-shaped thallus some twenty groups of arche- 
gonia were found, each group consisting of about six archegonia 
and seated, it appeared, at the base of a small concave adventitious 
shoot of the thallus and surrounded by several scales whose cells 
contained chloroplasts. 1 
It appears from the above that Cyathodium tuberosum stands 
near C. cavernarum as regards the structure of the thallus and 
sporogonium, but it has some peculiarities of its own as for instance, 
ventral pores, tubers, dioecious habit and fixed elaters among other 
things. It differs markedly from C. cavernarum as regards the male 
receptacle and the position of the archegonia. The significance of 
the male receptacle and the position of Cyathodium will be discussed 
at the end of the paper. 
TARGIONIA HYPOPHYLLA L. VAR. INTEGERRIMA. 
The species described there under the above name differs from 
the type as described by Stephani 2 and others in a few respects, but 
1 Stephani (“ Species Hepaticarum,” vol. 1, p. 63) has described a similar 
abnormality in C. aureo-nitens where the involucre is replaced by a flat shoot 
bearing the capsule directly. 
2 “ Species hepaticarum,” vol. 1, 1900, p. 61. 
