Thickened Bands in the Capsule Wall of Notothylas levieri

Abstract

Thickened bands occur in the cells of the inner capsule wall layer of Notothylas levieri Schiffn. This constitutes the first report of such thickening bands in any species of the genus. A possible relationship between Anthocerotae and Hepaticae is postulated. Thickenings in the inner layer of the capsule wall in Anthocerotales had not been reported until Proskauer (1960) first described spiral thickened bands in Dendroceros crispus. Recently in Notothylas levieri, collected from Western Himalayas, India, (LWU: 1161/WH, leg R. Udar, 15 October 1965 & LWU: 1732/WH, leg D. K. Singh and J. C. Joshi, 25 September 1976) prominent thickened bands were observed in the cells of the inner layer of the capsule wall. Further investigations on the type specimen of this species (G 18906), collected by Revs. Decoly and Schaul from Kurseong, Eastern Himalayas, on 26 October 1899, confirmed the presence of such thickenings as a regular feature in this species. Unlike the double spiral thickening bands earlier reported in D. crispus, thickenings in N. levieri are usually in the form of incomplete annular bands. Sometimes, however, annular or transverse, or even spiral, bands are also present (Fig. 2-3). We have found no similar report for any other species of Notothylas. Discovery of the presence of incomplete annular wall thickenings which are usually transversely oriented (rarely longitudinally so) in the inner layer of the N. levieri capsule seems to be of considerable phylogenetic significance. The organization of the capsule wall with transversely oriented bands in N. levieri resembles the majority This content downloaded from 207.46.13.178 on Wed, 15 Jun 2016 06:39:36 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 576 THE BRYOLOGIST [Volume 81