SHIV RAM KASHYAP (1882 - 1934)

  BRYOLOGY

                             He is a Father of Indian Bryology. He identified new genera like  Atchinsoniella, Sauchia, Sewardiella and Stephansoniella.

Pakistani botanist. Kashyap served as Professor of Botany at the University of Panjab, Lahore, from 1919. He was especially interested in hepatics and authored the series "Morphological and Biological Notes on New and Little Known West-Himalayan Liverworts" in the New Phytologist (1914-1915) and a two-part work on the liverworts of the Western Himalayas and the Panjab Plain (1929-1932). He was also the author of the 1936 Lahore District Flora, which was revised and completed by his former assistant, Amar Chand Joshi. A great explorer and collector, Kashyap's specimens from the Himalayan region are particularly rich.

                Kashyap was the first secretary of the Indian Botanical Society, founded in 1920, and later its president. As well as his interest in liverworts, his work on the sexual generation of Equisetum and the flora of Tibet was particularly noted. Despite falling very ill on one of his forays in the Himalayas, he was undeterred and returned many times before his heart began to give him trouble. He died suddenly of heart failure in 1934. The genus Kashyapia R.S.Chopra was named in his honour.

                            Bryophytes are simple and most primitive plant groups descended from alga, there are simply Embryophytes. Bryophytes are simple land habiting cryptogamsans are restricted to moist,shady habits. 

• They lack vascular tissue and hence called 'Non - vascular cryptogams' also called Amphibians of plant kingdom ' because they need water for completing their life cycle.

• Bryophytes fossil formation is improbable since they do not possess lignin.

• Bryophytes thrive in mostly-damp habitats; however, some species can live in deserts while others can inhabit hostile environments such as the tundra.
• Bryophytes are nonvascular because they do not have tracheids; instead, water and nutrients circulate inside specialized conducting cells.
• In a bryophyte, all the vegetative organs belong to the gametophyte, which is the dominant and most familiar form; the sporophyte appears for only a short period.
• The sporophyte is dependent on the gametophyte and remains permanently attached to it in order to gain nutrition and protection.