New and Little Known West- Himalayan Liverworts. 313 
indicating that growth has been continued from the apical tuber 
of the last year’s growth. It is either simple or dichotomously 
branched once or twice, and is closely attached to the substratum. 
The lobes are obovate with a cordate apex (Fig. 3, a to d). The 
plants are light green in colour, spongy above but having a thick 
midrib projecting downwards. The upper surface is areolated, 
each areole corresponding to a chamber below. The chambers 
(Fig. 4, a) which occur in a single layer are very large, directed 
obliquely forwards and have no assimilating filaments in them. 
Each dorsal areole has a stoma in it which may open into a single 
chamber or into two to four chambers. The septa separating these 
chambers are seen just below the stoma. The stoma is thus of a 
typical confluent form, and when four chambers open by a common 
pore the latter has a peculiar cruciform appearance. Each pore is 
surrounded by one or two rings of hyaline cells (Fig. 4, b). The 
number of these cells is variable, and often the cells of the inner 
Fio. 3. Stephensoniella brevipeduiiculata: a, b, male plants, x6 ; c, unfertilised 
female plant ; d, female plant with ripe sporogonia (the peduncle should be a 
little shorter), x 5; e, carpocephalum with two ripe sporogonia, x 4. 
ring are more or less collapsed to form a thin membrane projecting 
into the opening of the stoma. The ventral surface is greenish and 
has both kinds of rhizoids. The scales (Fig. 4, c, d) are hyaline, 
small and in two rows. They arise from the midrib but do not 
reach the margins. Each scale has a few filamentous appendages 
arising from the apex and the margin. In the young state the cells 
of the scale contain chloroplasts. 
The plants form thick adventitious ventral shoots occasionally, 
but every branch which lives up to the end of the vegetative season 
forms an apical tuber. At this time the growing point ceases to 
form wings and produces in this way a small cylindrical downwardly 
directed tuber covered with scales. This tuber has no chambers 
and its cells are full of starch grains. The growing point survives 
buried in the earth and continues its growth next year. The rest 
of the plant dies at the end of the season. 
