On Saproptiytism and Mycorhiza in Hepaticae . 35 
sacs occurring in the compact tissue of the thallus and the sexual 
receptacles. 
The presence of a symbiotic fungus has also been observed in 
several of the foliose Jungermanniaceae, and it is probable that 
here, as in the thalloid Hepaticae, further research will result in the 
recording of additional examples of this phenomenon. The occur¬ 
rence of fungal hyphae in the rhizoids has been described by Jansei 
for Zoopsis and by Nemec 2 for Kantia trichomanis, Lepidozia 
veptans , and Lophozia bicvenata . To these species the writer can 
add the following, of which living material has been examined: 
CepJialozia biciispidata, Scapania nemorosa, Diplophyllam albicans , 
Plagiochila asplenioides, Bazzania trilobata, and Porella platypliylla . 
The presence of the fungus appears to be correlated with the 
habitat of the plant. When the substratum consists of rich humus, 
fungal hyphae are nearly always to be found, even when they are 
absent from plants of the same species growing on ordinary soil or 
on stones. In some cases the swollen free end of the rhizoid is filled 
by a mass of branched and interwoven hyphae. As a rule, from 
two to six hyphae pass straight up the rhizoid, sometimes showing 
ladder-like fusions. At the upper end of the rhizoid, the hyphae 
become repeatedly branched, giving rise to a parenchyma-like mass 
of cells, which frequently send short finger-like processes through 
the cell-walls into the overlying tissue of the stem. As observed by 
Nemec in Kantia , the cells into which these processes project retain 
their living contents, whilst the nucleus of each cell comes to lie on 
the lower wall, in close contact with the fungus. From Nemec’s 
observations on Kantia , it would appear that in this case the fungus 
is an Ascomycete (Mol/isia Jungennanniae), which frequently grows 
on the liverwort, bearing little bluish-green apothecia and covering 
the plant with a web-like mycelium. The hyphae of this mycelium 
here and there penetrate the cells of the leaves and stems, and these 
infected cells soon lose their protoplasm and become discoloured. 
It is, therefore, probable that in at least some of the cases in 
which fungal hyphae occur in the tissues of the liverwort-game* 
tophyte, the hyphae belong to a fungus which may either grow as a 
parasite on the host-plant, or the latter may, as it were, gain the 
upper hand and cause the fungus to enter into a mutually beneficial 
partnership, forming a mycorhiza by means of which a more or less 
less saprophytic mode of life is established. 
1 Jause, Les Endophytes radicnux de quelques plantes 
javanaises. Annales du jardiu botanique de Buitenzorg, 
vol. 14, 1897. 
1 Nemec, Die Mykbrliiza einiger Lebermoose. Bericlite der 
deutsch. botan. Gesellscli., Band 17, 1899, p. 311. 
