Fig. 542. Fructification of a Jungermannia, magnified; its cellular spore-stalk, surrounded at base by some of the leaves, at summit the 4-valved spore-case opening, discharging spores and elaters. 543. Two elaters and some spores from the same, highly magnified.
Fig. 544. One of the frondose Liverworts, Steetzia, otherwise like a Jungermannia; the spore-case not yet protruded from its sheath.
502. Marchantia, the commonest and largest of the true Liverworts, forms large green plates or fronds on damp and shady ground, and sends up from some part of the upper face a stout stalk, ending in a several-lobed umbrella-shaped body, under the lobes of which hang several thin-walled spore-cases, which burst open and discharge spores and elaters. Riccia natans (Fig. [545]) consists of wedge-shaped or heart-shaped fronds, which float free in pools of still water. The under face bears copious rootlets; in the substance of the upper face are the spore-cases, their pointed tips merely projecting: there they burst open, and discharge their spores. These are comparatively few and large, and are in fours; so they are very like the macrospores of Pillworts or Quillworts.
[503.] Thallophyta, or Thallophytes in English form. This is the name for the lower class of Cellular Cryptogams,—plants in which there is no marked distinction into root, stem, and leaves. Roots in any proper sense they never have, as organs for absorbing, although some of the larger Seaweeds (such as the Sea Colander, Fig. [553]) have them as holdfasts. Instead of axis and foliage, there is a stratum of frond, in such plants commonly called a Thallus (by a strained use of a Greek and Latin word which means a green shoot or bough), which may have any kind of form, leaf-like, stem-like, branchy, extended to a flat plate, or gathered into a sphere, or drawn out into threads, or reduced to a single row of cells, or even reduced to single cells. Indeed, Thallophytes are so multifarious, so numerous in kinds, so protean in their stages and transformations, so recondite in their fructification, and many so microscopic in size, either of the plant itself or its essential organs, that they have to be elaborately described in separate books and made subjects of special study.
Fig. 545, 546. Two plants of Riccia natans, about natural size. 547. Magnified section of a part of the frond, showing two immersed spore-cases, and one emptied space. 548. Magnified section of a spore-case with some spores. 549. Magnified spore-case torn out, and spores; one figure of the spores united; the other of the four separated.
504. Nevertheless, it may be well to try to give some general idea of what Algæ and Lichens and Fungi are. Linnæus had them all under the orders of Algæ and Fungi. Afterwards the Lichens were separated; but of late it has been made most probable that a Lichen consists of an Alga and a Fungus conjoined. At least it must be so in some of the ambiguous forms. Botanists are in the way of bringing out new classifications of the Thallophytes, as they come to understand their structure and relations better. Here, it need only be said that
505. Lichens live in the air, that is, on the ground, or on rocks, trunks, walls, and the like, and grow when moistened by rains. They assimilate air, water, and some earthy matter, just as do ordinary plants. Algæ, or Seaweeds, live in water, and live the same kind of life as do ordinary plants. Fungi, whatever medium they inhabit, live as animals do, upon organic matter,—upon what other plants have assimilated, or upon the products of their decay. True as these general distinctions are, it is no less true that these orders run together in their lowest forms; and that Algæ and Fungi may be traced down into forms so low and simple that no clear line can be drawn between them; and even into forms of which it is uncertain whether they should be called plants or animals. It is as well to say that they are not high enough in rank to be distinctively either the one or the other. On the other hand there is a peculiar group of plants, which in simplicity of composition resemble the simpler Algæ, while in fructification and in the arrangements of their simple cells into stem and branches they seem to be of a higher order, viz.:—