The Present Position of Indian Hepaticology with a Note on the Hepatic Vegetation of the Country I
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THE PRESENT POSITION OF INDIAN HEPATICOLOGY WITH A NOTE ON THE HEPATIC VEGETATION OF THE COUNTRY I S. K. PANDE* AND D. c. BHARDWAJ" INTRODUCTION DISTRIBUTION OF LIVERWORTS IN INDIA N 1936 the earlier researches in Indian hepatics were reviewed by one of the The hepatic vegetation of this subcon tinent I authors (PANDE, 19"36) at the kind has not been, so far, adequately considered suggestion of the late Professor Birbal from the distributional point of view. This Sahni, F.R.S. Since then a number of is largely due to our lack of knowledge workers have, through their investigations of the bryology of the country. The Hima in the field of Indian bryology, contri layas have received a little more attention buted to our knowledge of these plants, so in this respect. The magnificent scenery that today, after a lapse of more than a and the varied fauna and flora of these lofty decade, it seems worth while once again to mountain ranges, their perplexing geology take a census of this work and see how far and rich mineral resources have attracted we have progressed. many students of natural sciences. Some India is a vast country. It extends from of them, with their hobby of plant collect the tropics in the south to the temperate ing, have contributed to the advancement regions in the north, and, including Pakistan, of our knowledge of this group; but it is covers an area of about 1,581,400 sq. miles, due chiefly to the interest taken by some of with territories presenting very varied geo the Superintendents of the Royal Botanical graphical and ecological conditions for plant Gardens, Calcutta, and the efforts of some growth. Liverworts, as a rule, grow in shady, of the clergymen, stationed at Kurseong and moist and cool situations. Such habitats elsewhere, that our knowledge of the liver occur in many parts of the country (MAP 1). worts of this most interesting part of the The study of liverworts in India has not world has made some progress. received as much attention as that of some More than 50 years ago Professor V. Schiff other groups. Admirable work has been ner (1899), in an article based on Durel's done in phanerogams and ferns and there collection of Bhutan liverworts, pointed exist a number of excellent treatises on these out that the hepatics of this area belong plants. to purely tropical forms, most of these Hooker and Thomson, as early as 1855, corresponding to the species of the East as a result of their exhaustive studies of the Indian peninsula and the Indian archi angiospermic vegetation of the coun try, pelago. He further drew attention to the recognized the affinities of the angiospermic resemblances between the liverworts of flora of the Western Himalayas with that of Bhutan and those of the Indo-Malayan Western Asia and Europe, and of the Eastern region. In later years Kashyap ( 1920-21 ) Himalayas with that of China and Japan. discussed critically the distribution of liver Hooker ( 1904), in his sketch of the flora of worts of the Western Himalayas and the British India, again drew attention to the Punjab plain. He made extensive tours in same fact, remarking that the Himalayan the Himalayas, including Tibet, to study flora is a mixed flora. The eastern region the hepatic flora; from these he arrived at is dominated by the plants from China and a number of interesting and noteworthy Malaya, •while the western abounds in conclusions with regard to the distribution European, African and Oriental plants. of liverworts in those areas. His views were 1. Contribution from the Botany Department, Lucknow University, New Series, No.1. * Reader in Botany, University of Lucknow. ** Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeobotany, Lucknow. PANDE & BHARDWAJ - THE PRESENT POSITION OF INDIAN HEPATICOLOGY 369 618 ------ 814 AMARt<.AN• TAl( • PA(HMARHI 2/0 I~ 112 MADRA MANGALORE 20 MAP 1 later confirmed by Pande ( 1936) from his laboratory and a detailed discussion of the study of the hepatic flora of certain parts of various aspects of the flora and ecology of the Kumaon hills. Indian hepatics will be presented when During the past several years one of us these investigations have been completed. ( Pande) has made a number of tours in Meanwhile, a few preliminary remarks, based the Himalayas. South India and Ceylon to on the data already known and the obser collect material and observe the mode of vations made in the course of these travels, growth, habitat, etc., of these plants (see supplemented from a study of the specimens MAP 2). It has also been possible for us to so far examined, will be presented in this study several other collections. i.e. the rich paper. collection of the Eastern Himalayan hepatics made by Decoly and Schaul during 1897-99 PROGRESS OF RESEARCHES DURING from the neighbourhood of Kurseong (alti THE PERIOD 1937-1950 tude 2,000-8,000 ft.) in Darjeeling district; Pfleiderer's collection of the South Indian A. Systematics and Taxonomy - A perusal hepatics ( 1912-14), made from Kudremukh of the literature published during the period and its vicinity in the Western Ghats and under review shows marked progress in the from the Nilgiris, and Fleischer's collection study of the hepatic vegetation of India. of Ceylon liverworts. A number of friends The total of known genera has increased and and colleagues have also very kindly placed several new or otherwise interesting species at our disposal their valuable collections of have been described. Valuable informa liverworts from various parts of India. All tion on our hepatics has also appeared in these specimens are being studied in our some of the contemporary bryological publi- 370 THE PALAEOBOTANIST JAMNOTRI 9900 TI BET " .... " \ I J i / / / / / HARDWAR i -y i I , '-, ,,// '" RANIKI-\[,. ,. N " - ~} /",; NAINITAL ( -' SCA LE o Mll(S 16 ~l ~---'----' , ,..- ... , t ~ /.~._.j MAP 2 - Kumaon Himalayas. Heavy lines indicate route of the journey. cations of other countries. Excellent descrip accurate information on various aspects of tions of some of our hepatics by eminent Indian bryology becomes available. bryologists like Verdoorn (1930,1934,1935), A. R. Chavan (1937) described a new Carl (1931), Evans (1934) and Hoffmann species of Cyathodium Kze., C. barodae ( 1935) can be found in them. Similar in Chavan and the same has been included by formation on some Indian species is avail Professor V. Schiffner (1938) in his excellent able in Fullford's monograph (1946) of the monograph on the genus, which also gives a genus Bazzania, Castle's account ( 1936) of critical account of all the other Indian Radula, and Eifrig's monograph (1936) of species, including a new species, C. acro the Indo-Malayan species of Taxileje2mea trichum Schffn., proposed by Schiffner for a ( Spruce ~ Schffn. specimen collected by Decoly and Schaul A critical study of Indian species of some from Kurseong (Darjeeling, Eastern Hima of the genera has also been taken up, and layas) in 1899. a certain amount of progress made in this R. S. Chopra ( 1938), on the basis of an direction. However, a good deal of work examination of collections made by seve still needs to be done before adequate and ral persons from a number of localities in PANDE & BHARDWAJ - THE PRESENT POSITION OF INDIAN HEPATICOLOGY 371 Asp. !ergussoni, from the same area. A critical study of all the three spe cies, and a careful comparison with SI K K\M Asp. mangaloreus St., known from Mangalore in the Western Ghats, is ,..-._-_... highly desirable. 2 - ,j --, Pande and Srivastava ( 1<942) des cribed a new species o( NoweUia Mitt., N. indica Pande & Srivastava, from the Western Himalayas and a year later Pande and Misra ( 1943 ) published a new Leptocoelea Evans, L. himalayensis Pande & Misra, z:r!oo from the same area. The latter is a very variable species. The corti colous form, collected from near v Bageshwar (3,500 ft.), shows marked differences, especially in the lobule, l'=~~ '?" from the rupicolous form gathered ~ ,~ ....... from the surface of moist rocks in ,, ~ the neighbourhood of Loharkhet ,C.All / C)-tuNBA"TTY (6,000ft.). In another paper, dealing Q t ~\ RANG'TONG MllE.S \ with the epiphyllous hepatics of the country, Pande and Misra ( 1943 ) described two new species of liver MAP 3 - Heavy lines indicate route of the journey in worts, (I) Cololejeunea himalayensis Darjeeling region of the Eastern Himalayas. Pande & Misra and (2) Leptolejeunea himalayensis Pande & Misra, from Mungpoo (4,000 ft., Darjeeling, South India, published a list of the hepatics Eastern Himalayas) and added some details containing more than a hundred species, to the description of three other liverworts, including several new records and 3 new i.e. (3) Leptocolea lancilobaSt., (4) Rectolejeunea species. In this census 25 species are assign aloba ( Sande. Lac.) St. and (5) Cololejeunea ed to Kotagiri, 20 to Kodaikanal, 18 to hispidissima (St.), Herz. The last two Shambaganur, 14 to Madras, 11 to Maha of these were recorded in that paper for baleshwar, 8 to Negapatam and 7 to the Nil the first time from India, while for the giris. In a similar list of the liverworts of first one it was the first record from South the Eastern Himalayas and Bengal, Chopra India. In another paper on this interesting ( 1938) gives about 130 species, including group of liverworts Pande and Ahmad again 3 new species and a number of new ( 1942) reported four more epiphyllous records. The majority of the species are species, i.e. (I) Taeniolejeunea parafJinis from Darjeeling while the remaining come (Schffn.) Zw., (2) Radula protensa Ldbg., from other localities, e.g. Kurseong 13, (3) Leptolejeunea schiffneri St., from Gersoppa Phallot 11.