318 Shiv Ram Kashyap. 
When Goebel 1 suggested a wholesale reduction in the 
Marchantiales he added that his conclusions are only probable and 
take for granted many transitional forms which are nowadays very 
rarely found in the vegetable kingdom. Fortunately we do find a 
few such transitional forms in these days so far as the Marchantiales 
are concerned. Two such forms have already been described: (1) 
Aitchisoniella which connects Exormotheca and 7 'argioitia; (2) 
Stephensoniella which connects Exormotheca, Boschia and Corsinia. 
Another such form will be described below under Plagiochasma 
articulatum. Thus though the general conclusion of Goebel has been 
strongly confirmed his division of the Marchantiaceae into Simplices 
(containing Targionia and Cyatliodium ) and the Composite cannot 
be maintained. 
Fig. 5. Plagiochasma appendiculatum : a, thallus with a male (left) and a 
female receptacle (right), X 2 ; b, lobe with a ripe carpocephalum, x 2 ; c, 
carpocephalum from below, X 2. 
Plagiochasma appendiculatum L. et L. 
This species has been met with in various parts of northern 
India, both in the Himalayas and the Plains, according to Stephani. 2 
The plant which I propose to discuss under this name, however, 
differs in several respects from the description given by Stephani 
and the peculiar features are noted below. 
The size and general form and appearance of the thallus are 
just as Stephani describes them, but the thallus and the tissue of 
the female receptacle contain a few brown oil-cells. Sometimes 
these cells occur only in the receptacle. Each stoma is bounded 
by three series of eight cells each. The scales which bear large 
hyaline appendages, one or two to each scale, do not reach beyond 
the margins but only half way to them, though the appendages are 
conspicuous at the anterior depression where they bend over the 
growing point and cover it. The thallus sometimes bears apical 
adventitious shoots. The male receptacle is usually horse-shoe 
shaped having two growing points (Fig. 5, a). Sometimes the 
* Flora, Bd. 101, pp. 43-97, 1910. 
2 “ Species Hepaticarum,” vol. 1, 1900, p. 79. 
