86 
most interesting paper, for it gives not merely a description and 
beautiful plate of a new species, but also discusses the present 
distribution of the Bryophytes of Europe and America and the 
means of dispersal in various species. The second part also 
abounds in most interesting bits of personal experience and gen- 
eralization. An interesting theory is held to account for the 
presence of tropical species of Cryptogams at Killarney, that they 
- have survived since Pliocene times; the theory derives addi- 
tional support from the presence of two molluscs found nowhere 
else in Europe, Limnewa involuta and Geomalcus maculosus. 
“ The Killarney Fern,” Hymenophyllum Tunbridgense is another 
example that has occurred to us. 
Multinucleated cells. (Journ. Roy. Mic. Soc., 1887, p. 107.) 
“In a number of plants examined, (Polygonum Sieboldii, Acan- 
thus mollis, Podophyllum peltatum, Eschscholtzia Californica, 
Impatiens noli-me-tangere, Dictamnus Fraxinella, Linum pyren- 
aicum, Polygonatum multiflorum), Mr. A. E. Grant found, on 
making longitudinal sections of the stem and petioles, that the cells 
of the wood-fibres contained several nuclei, sometimes as many as 
ten. These nuclei appeared in general to spring from the division 
of a single nucleus.” (From Trans. Bot. Soc. Edin., xvi., p. 38.) 
Sur L’ Origine Botanique de quelques Plantes Cultivées et \es 
causes probables de l’extinction des espéces, par M. Alph. De 
Candolle. (Arch. Sci. Phys, et Nat, Jan. 15, 1887.) After 
- calling attention to the fact that the botanical origin of many 
cultivated plants is doubtful whereas their geographical source is 
nearly always certain, M. De Candolle proceeds to discuss the 
question of the derivation of Zea Mays, Vicia Faba, Ervum Lens, 
Cicer arietinum and Triticum vulgare, concluding the paper by 
indicating the probable cause of the extermination of many of the 
species which are now known only in the cultivated state, by 
attributing it to the agency of animals. 
On the 6th of January, M. De Candolle reported to the Natur- 
al History Soc. of Geneva, that wild plants of Cucurbita maxi- 
ma had been found in Nepaul and seeds sent to Kew. From 
these M. Naudin has cultivated specimens, at Antibes, the fruits 
of which M. De Candolle pronounces to be those of C. maxima. 
(Archives, vol. xvii., p. 75.) 
