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Position of Hepatics and Mosses in the Plant Kingdom as Shown by a Comparison of Homologous Parts

"Quorsum, inquient multi, tantum laboris in rebus adeo tenuibus insumtum ?-cui bono haec omnia ? Primo; ut cognoscamus sapientiam creatoris, quae in minimis non minus elucet, quam in magnis plantis."

Dillenius in praefatione ad Hist. Musc.

"Wherefore, many ask, is so much labour spent on such small things?-for what good are all these things? Primarily; that we may know the wisdom of the Creator, which shows itself not less in the smallest plants than in the great ones.

Dillenius, in the preface to The History of Mosses.

"If by the microscopic glass

Survey'd, you'll see how far surpass

The works of nature, in design,

And texture delicately fine,

And perfectness of every part,

Each effort of mimetic art;

And as the gardener's watchful care,

The ground, of native clothing bare,

Indues with vegetable soil ;

And with the waste's collected spoil

The tender plants exposed defends ;

So the Great Gardener, mindful, sends

The mossy tribes wherewith to shun

The pinching frost, the scorching sun."

AFTER one has become familiar with the conspicuous parts of a thalloid and leafy hepatic, and a leafy moss, it is interesting to study the homologies or origin of the parts, and to determine the position of the plants in the plant kingdom.

To quote Dr. L. M. Underwood:

"The group known since the time of Adanson as the Hepaticae stands in a unique position on the boundary line of thallose plants, and its position is not only intermediate from a structural standpoint, but in its relation to the evolution of the higher plants it stands as a key or link between the lower or simpler, and the higher or more complex.

"The hepatics possess almost no utilitarian aspect. Beyond the doubtful use of one or two for medicine, and the occasional occurrence of one or more tropical species as weeds, they are, so far as the physical condition of the human race is concerned, an entirely useless group of plants . . . and yet from the higher standpoint of genetic relationship, there is probably no single group of plants that occupies such a unique position in the plant world. What the group `Vermes' is to the animal kingdom, the Hepaticae are to plants, with this difference, that we have here a much less complicated group of organisms with which to deal."