phase, which may be compared with the protonema of mosses, is of short duration.
The power of vegetative propagation is widely spread. When artificially divided small fragments of the gametophyte are found to be capable of growing into new individuals. Apart from the separation of branches by the decay of older portions, special gemmae are found in many species. In Aneura the contents of superficial cells, after becoming surrounded by a new wall and dividing, escape as bi-cellular gemmae. Usually the gemmae arise by the outgrowth of superficial cells, and become free by breaking away from their stalk. When separated they may be single cells or consist of two or numerous cells. In Blasia and Marchantia the gemmae are formed within tubular or cup-shaped receptacles, out of which they are forced by the swelling of mucilage secreted by special hairs.
A. Portion of thallus (t) bearing two stalked antheridiophores (hu).
B. Longitudinal section through a young antheridiophore. The antheridia (a) are seated in depressions of the upper surface (o); b, scales; h, rhizoids.
C. Longitudinal section of antheridium; st, stalk; w, wall.
D. Two spermatozoids.
Marchantiales.—The plants of this group are most abundant in warm sunny localities, and grow for the most part on soil or rocks often in exposed situations. Nine genera are represented in Britain. Targionia is found on exposed rocks, but the other forms are less strikingly xerophytic; Marchantia polymorpha and Lunularia spread largely by the gemmae formed in the special gemma-cups on the thallus, and occur commonly in greenhouses. The large thallus of Conocephalus covers stones by the waterside, while Dumortiera is a hygrophyte confined to damp and shady situations. Among the Ricciaceae, most of which grow on soil, Ricciocarpus and Riccia natans occur floating on still water. The dorsiventral thallus is constructed on the same plan throughout the group, and shows a lower region composed of cells containing little chlorophyll and an upper stratum specialized for assimilation and transpiration. The lower region usually forms a more or less clearly marked midrib, and consists of parenchymatous cells, some of which may contain oil-bodies or be differentiated as mucilage cells or sclerenchyma fibres. Behind the apex, which has a number of initial cells, a series of amphigastria or ventral scales is formed. These consist of a single layer of cells, and their terminal appendages often fold over the apex and protect it. Usually they stand in two rows, but sometimes accessory rows occur, and in Riccia only a single median row is present. The thallus bears two sorts of rhizoids, wider ones with smooth walls which grow directly down into the soil, and longer, narrower ones, with peg-like thickenings of the wall projecting into the cell-cavity. The peg-rhizoids, which are peculiar to the group, converge under shelter of the amphigastria to the midrib, beneath which they form a wick-like strand. Through this water is conducted by capillarity as well as in the cell cavities. The upper stratum of the thallus is constructed to regulate the giving off of the water thus absorbed. It consists of a series of air-chambers (fig. 6, B) formed by certain lines of the superficial cells growing up from the surface, and as the thallus increases in area continuing to divide so as to roof in the chamber. The layer forming the roof is called the "epidermis," and the small opening left leading into the chamber is bounded by a special ring of cells and forms the "stoma" or air-pore. In most species of Riccia the air-chambers are only narrow passages, but in the other Marchantiales they are more extended. In the simplest cases the sides and base of the chambers perform the work of assimilation (e.g. Corsinia). Usually the surface is extended by the development of partitions in the chambers (Reboulia), or by the growth from the floor of the chamber of short filaments of chlorophyllous cells (Targionia. Marchantia, fig. 6). The stomata may be simply surrounded by one or more series of narrower cells, or, as in the thallus of Marchantia and on the archegoniophores of other forms, may become barrel-shaped structures by the division of the ring of cells bounding the pore. In some cases the lowermost circle of cells can be approximated so as to close the pore. In Dumortiera the air-chambers are absent, their formation being only indicated at the apex.
Fig. 6.—Marchantia polymorpha. A, Stoma in surface view. B, Air-chamber with the filaments of assimilating cells and stoma in vertical section.