Ctit ting.—On Androgynous Receptacles in Marchantia. 353 
The other type of female receptacle and the two types of antheridio- 
phore have already been shortly described. They are perfectly normal 
in structure, and a detailed account of them is not given because it is 
certain that the material contained at least two species and it is impossible 
to separate them. It is probable, however, that the asymmetric type of 
antheridiophore belongs to the same species as does the disc-shaped 
Fig. 5. Hermaphrodite branch from a gametophore. * =involucre, ar = archegonia, 
part, and <5 = male part, x 15. Diagrammatic. 
gametophore; the male outgrowth of the latter much resembling the lobes 
of the former. 
Historical. 
The first record of androgynous gametophores in the Marchantiaceae 
seems to have been made by Taylor ( 20 ), who in 1834 writes of them 
as occurring in Dumortiera irrigua (Hygropyla irrigua , Tayl.). In 1836 
he writes of D. irrigua (.Hygropila , Tayl.) in Mackay’s Flora Hiberniae ( 21 ), 
‘ The fructification is commonly dioecious, sometimes monoecious, and not 
rarely androgynous as observed in Marchantia androgyna! This last- 
mentioned plant is now known as Preissia commutata. In his paper 
‘ De Marchantieis ’ ( 20 ), published two years previously, an account is given 
of Marchantia androgyna (.Preissia commutata), but this peculiarity is not 
mentioned. Since then androgynous receptacles of Preissia commutata 
have been found and described by Goebel ( 9 ), Leitgeb ( 12 ), and Miss 
Townsend ( 22 ). 
Goebel found that the front portion of the fructification bore antheridia 
on the upper surface and the back portion archegonia on the lower surface. 
He compared the androgynous condition to the state of affairs noted 
by him (8) in Isoetes lacustris , where a vegetative bud was found in the 
position in which a sporangium usually occurs. He does not think that the 
androgynous receptacle need necessarily be explained as a reversion to 
a primitive, monoecious arrangement of the sexual organs. 
A a 
