On Saprophytism and Mycorhiza in Iiepaticae. 33 
rhizoids penetrate the tissue of the substratum (chiefly decaying 
leaves), but that both the plain and the tuberculate rhizoids were 
traversed by numerous hyphae which extended into the compact 
ventral tissue of the thallus, passing through the cell-walls and 
becoming frequently branched. The hyphae are confined to the 
lowest layers of the thallus, and the cells containing them appear 
in sections as a fairly well defined zone. In Fcgatclla ( Conocephalus ) 
conica, the fungal hyphae are sometimes very abundant, especially 
when the plants are growing in decaying organic matter. The writer 
has collected this liverwort on the sides of foul sewer-like streams 
issuing from tanneries and other works, where the plants grow luxu¬ 
riantly in large patches on the slimy substratum and form practically 
the sole vegetation. In such plants, the fungal hyphae occupy nearly 
the whole of the compact tissue underlying the air-chambers. The 
hyphae frequently bear small conidium-like bodies and also large 
swollen vesicles filled with dense granular protoplasm. These 
vesicles may be either terminal or intercalary, and in the latter case 
are often aggregated in chains. Some of the vesicles are thin- 
walled, but many of them have thickened, highly refractive walls, 
and may be regarded as chlamydospores. The fungus-bearing 
plants are larger and thicker than those which are free from fungal 
hyphae, and there can be little doubt that we have here a definite 
symbiosis, the fungus forming a mycorhiza by means of which the 
life of the Fegatella- plant becomes to a large extent saprophytic. 
As shown by Beauverie, 1 who has briefly described the fungus 
inhabiting the thallus of Fegatella , the conidia and chlamydospcres 
which are borne on the hyphae, both within the tissues of the 
thallus and in cultures, agree closely with those of Fusarium. 
It may be noted that according to Czapek, 2 the tissues of 
Fegatella , Marcliantia , and Lunularia, besides other Hepaticae, 
contain the antiseptic substance which he terms “sphagnol” on 
account of its abundance in the Bog-mosses. This substance was 
shown by Czapek to exist in combination with the cellulose of the 
cell-walls, and to exert an inhibitory influence on the growth of 
bacteria and moulds. This suggests the view that in the case of the 
Fusarium-like fungus the sphagnol may serve to regulate the growth 
of the fungus-body and to prevent symbiosis from passing into 
parasitism. 
1 Beauverie, Etude d une Hepatique a thalle liabite par un 
champignon iilHinenteux. Comptes rendus de l’Acad. des 
Sci. de Paris, 1902, p. 616. 
3 Czapek, Zur Chemie der Zellmemberanen bei deu Laub. 
und Eebermoosen. Mora, Band 86, 1889, p. 361. 
