New and Little Known West-Himalayan Liverworts. 11 
A plant has been found by the writer in Mussoorie which is un¬ 
doubtedly the Athalamia pinguis of Falconer, and its further study 
has shown that Schiffner’s first conjecture is right and that the 
plant is very closely related to Clevea. Falconer had only ripe 
plants which were beginning to wither and this was one reason why 
he could not make out several points. There can be no doubt about 
the identity of the plant after comparing it with Falconer’s figures 
and his description. 
The plant* is one of the commonest liverworts in Mussoorie, 
and grows in dense patches on more or less exposed eastern slopes. 
The thallus is closely creeping on the earth or on the almost bare 
rock. It may remain simple or fork once or twice. The lobes are 
broad and do not diverge from one another, for which reason 
Falconer described the plant as radiately 3-lobed. The thallus is 
light green, fleshy, with a thick midrib and very thin wings (Fig. 6, 
1, II). The wings are erect, not slightly, but distinctly so that the 
thallus is concave above in a transverse section. Longitudinally, 
however, it presents a different appearance. The plant grows 
upwards from a thick base, but after some time it again grows 
downwards and bends its thick apex into the soil at the end of the 
vegetative season (Fig. 6, I). A median longitudinal section of an 
unbranched thallus or a lobe is concave below owing to the peculiar 
habit of the plant. At the end of the vegetative season the apex is thick 
but it is not covered with scales which are found on the sides only 
and has very few rhizoids. The apical part rests in this condition 
during the dry season and grows upwards again next year. This 
goes on year after year. 
The dorsal surface is densely papillated, as pointed out by 
Falconer, but not without pores as he says. The “ papillae ” in reality 
are minute, slightly raised pores, which cannot be seen by an 
ordinary lens. Each pore is surrounded by four or five cells with 
very thick radial walls (Fig. 6, VI). The pores lead down to a 
single layer of slit-like spaces which can hardly be called chambers 
as they are so narrow (Fig. 6, IV, V). They are hardly wider than 
the slits of a typical Riccia thallus. The number of cells surrounding 
these spaces as seen in a horizontal section is variable. The spaces 
are directed forwards obliquely. The ventral surface is also 
greenish or hyaline and is covered with numerous large white 
scattered scales; these have an entire margin Fig. 6, VII) and a 
1 One more species of Athalamia has been recently discovered by the 
writer in another part of the Himalayas, viz., Pangie It dioecious and has 
wider air chambers. 
