This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1906 edition. Excerpt: ...--a phrase which from now on will be frequently used, because it signifies the most remarkable feature in the evolution of all plants above the thallophytes. The simple sporophytes of ancient bryophytes gave rise to the fern plants and through them to the large and complicated seed plants. A life history which ...
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This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1906 edition. Excerpt: ...--a phrase which from now on will be frequently used, because it signifies the most remarkable feature in the evolution of all plants above the thallophytes. The simple sporophytes of ancient bryophytes gave rise to the fern plants and through them to the large and complicated seed plants. A life history which consists of an alternation of sporophyte and gametophyte, as in the liverworts and mosses, may be expressed by the formula Gametophyte '-'--Sporophyte--asexual spore--Gametophyte, etcThis in an abbreviated form becomes THE R1CCIA GROUP 279 One must bear in mind these general characters of the bryophytes, as the liverworts and mosses are separately taken up and their characters finally summarized by treating the subjects under the four heads: Class I. The liverworts, or Hepaticte Class II. The mosses, or Musci. The origin and evolution of the hryophytes. Summary of the bryophytes and thallophytes. CLASS I. THE LIVERWORTS, OR HEPAT1C.(r) 286. The liverworts. The liverworts grow most luxuriantly in moist and shaded situations, some forms on the ground, some on rocks, aml some on trees. There are also certain aquatic liverworts which float on the surface of the water, and a few very simple ones which are entirely submerged like the algae. Thus, although most of the types have the land habit, some show very clearly adaptations for the aquatic life of their ancestors among the algae. The creeping habits of the liverworts probably indicate the way in which land plants arose and became established first along the margins of streams, ponds, and marshes where algal growths emerged from the water or were left stranded on the wet earth. These first land liverworts naturally clung close to the wet earth in the beginning, until the development of.
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