Recent Work on the Bryophyta. 
265 
NOTES ON RECENT LITERATURE. 
Recent Work on the Bryophyta. 
nlNCE the writer’s series of articles on “The Inter-Relationships 
1^ of the Bryophyta” appeared in this journal, 1 considerable 
additions have been made to the rapidly growing literature of this 
group. In the following notes no attempt is made to analyse, or 
even list, the whole of these publications, but merely to select for 
mention on the one hand such books and papers as appear to be of 
interest and importance as contributions to the morphology and 
phylogeny of the Bryophyta, and on the other hand to draw attention 
to a number of recent works dealing with the ecology of these 
plants. For the former object it has appeared sufficient to note 
only the publications of the last eighteen months, i.e., new work 
published since the appearance of the series of articles referred to. 
The ecology of the Bryophyta, however, was hardly touched upon 
in these articles, which were concerned mainly with morphology 
and phylogeny, and in view of the increasing attention now paid by 
ecological workers to the liverworts and mosses 2 it is hoped that the 
bringing together in these notes of some of the scattered publications 
on the biological and ecological aspects of the study of Bryophyta 
may be of interest to students and to workers in this field. Were 
the object in view that of noting every recent addition to the 
knowledge of the Bryophyta, it would be necessary to indicate some 
hundreds of publications, but the limited scope of this article will 
account for the absence of references to the greater part of the 
floristic literature and to cytological and physiological investigations 
in which the spores, antherozoids, etc., of Bryophyta were used as 
materials. 
Leitgeb (“ Untersuchungen iiber die Lebermoose,” 1874-1881) 
described the air-chambers of the Marchantiales as arising by the 
outgrowth and division of the superficial cells of the upper side of 
the thallus. Until recently this explanation has been generally 
accepted, being repeated not only in compilations but in original 
memoirs dealing with the subject. In 1907, however, Barnes and 
Land ( Bot. Gaz., Vol. 44) investigated the development of the 
thallus in some of the higher Marchantiales, and concluded that the 
chambers arise by splitting of the cell-walls in the upper tissue of 
the thallus, their origin being schizogenous like that of the air- 
chambers in the parenchyma of vascular plants. These authors 
did not examine any of the lower Marchantiales (Ricciacese, etc.), 
but suggested that the chambers of all the Marchantiales probably 
arise by a similar process of splitting of the internal walls. They 
also claimed to have traced each chamber in the higher genera to a 
single mother-cell. In 1910 Miss Hirsch (Bull. Torrey Bot. Club, 
Vol. 37) examined a number of species of Riccia, and found that the 
explanation given by Barnes and Land apparently held good for 
Riccia natans and R. fluitans, but that in other species of Riccia the 
1 New Phytologist, Vol. IX (1910) and Vol. X (1911); also issued 
as “ New Phytologist Reprint No. 4.” 
See, for instance, “ Types of British Vegetation 1 ' (Cambridge, 
1911). 
2 
