268 
Notes on Recent Literature. 
fication of the Marchantiales, and concludes that Targionia and 
Cyathodium are not closely related, the affinities of the latter being 
more probably with the Corsiniaceae. 
Schiffner (36) has described in some detail the morphology of 
Noteroclada, a monotypic South American genus until now very 
incompletely known. The author amplifies and corrects in various 
respects the earlier descriptions of this interesting plant, which 
though belonging to the Anacrogynous Jungermanniaceae shows 
differentiation into a somewhat broad stem and two rows of leaves. 
The sexual organs are produced on the upper side of the stem, the 
archegonia along the middle and the antheridia in lateral rows on 
either side. The antheridia are sunk in pits, as in Pellia, and the 
antherozoids are unusually large. The fertilised archegonium is 
surrounded by a single envelope (“ perianth ”); the haustorium 
(“ foot ”) of the sporogonium is produced into a sheath (“ involu- 
cellum ”) around the base of the seta; the inner layer of the capsule- 
wall has well-developed spiral fibres. Schiffner concludes that 
Noteroclada is closely allied to 'Vreubia and connects that genus 
through Petalophyllum to Fossombronia. The family to which these 
genera, together with Pellia and Blasia, belong (Codoniaceae) is one 
of the most interesting among the Hepaticae, as it illustrates in a 
remarkably complete manner the evolution of the leafy shoot from 
the simple thallus. 
Several interesting additions have recently been made to the 
knowledge of the familiar liverwort Pellia epiphylla. Miss Greenwood 
(13) has published the results of microtoming Pellia material 
collected at frequent intervals throughout the year, but has not 
added materially to previous knowledge of the morphology of this 
plant; her technique appears to have been good, however, and her 
description of this at the beginning of the paper may be useful to 
workers taking up the study of liverworts, which present some 
difficulties as regards micro-technical methods. That even the most 
extensively studied of “ type ” plants may yield interesting results 
upon renewed investigation is well illustrated in the case of Pellia by 
the recent papers of Wallis and of Lesage. Wallis (44) has described, 
for the first time, the curious method by which the opening of the 
ripe capsule takes place along the special dehiscence-lines (laid 
down at a fairly early stage in development, and found in various 
other liverworts, though rarely so conspicuous as in Pellia) —“ the 
dehiscence begins equatorially in two only of the lines, and the 
splits gradually extend to the poles till the capsule opens in two 
hemispherical portions; a split then begins to appear in the middle of the 
back of each of these hemispheres along the other dehiscence lines, 
eventually dividing each hemisphere into two longitudinally, and so 
forming the four capsule valves.” The writer has this spring fully 
confirmed the account given by Wallis ; probably this peculiar mode 
of dehiscence serves to prevent the premature falling-out of spores, 
before the hygroscopic elaterophore has been exposed to the air 
long enough to spread out and fulfil its function of bringing about 
gradual spore dispersal. 
Lesage (18), in a series of short but interesting notes on Pellia , 
describes his observation of “ polyembryony,” or more acurately the 
formation of two fully-developed sporogonia from different arche¬ 
gonia in the same involucre, a somewhat rare occurrence (though 
