N" 5 26' ANNfiE 1899 



REVUE BRYOLOGIQUE 



Paraissant tous les Deux Mois 



Les Manuscrits doivent etre Merits en francais, en lalin ou en anglais 



Sommaire du n*" 5 " 



Suggestions for a more satisfactory Classification of the Pleurocarpous 

 Mosses. GitouT, — Names of species, m Carrington's British Hoi)atic«. 

 Pearson. — Brya de TAsie Ceutrale (suite), Piiilibert. — Bryom Delphi - 

 nense. Corbiere. — Bibiiographie, 



more satisfactory class 

 urocarpous Mosses (1) 



Although it is axiomatic that the classification of plants 

 having an' alternation of generations should be based on 

 characters of both sporophyte and gametophyte all our 

 present systems err in the case of the moses in giving too 

 much weight to the characters of one or the other, either 

 as a whole or in individual cases. Schimper, who is follo- 

 wed by most recent authors including Lesquereux and 

 James, and Limpricht, gave a very disproportionate 

 weight te sporophyte characters. Lindberg s more scien- 

 tific arrangement often emphasizes single characters out 

 of all proportion to their relative weight. A most conspi- 

 cuous example of classifying mainly by sporophyte cha- 

 racters is the group or subfamily hothcciae of Limpricht s 

 Laubmoose. This includes Cylindrothedum, Climamim, 

 Isothechim, Ortholhcdum, Homalothecium, Platygy- 

 riimt, and Pylama. The only common characters of these 

 genera are the erect nearly symmetric capsule, and en- 

 dostome without cilia ; the gametophyte characters, on 

 the other hand, are very dissimilar and indicate rela- 

 tionships in several different groups. In the case ot Uoma- 

 lothcchnn every character except those mentioned above 

 indicates the closest kind of a relationship with tampto- 

 thechon. The habi t andgeneral appearance, leaf characters, 

 and seta are those of Camptothctium; the capsule, even 

 is oflen somewhat curved. Limpricht recognizes thus but 

 considers the sporophyte characters enough to place the 



(1) The s^enora names ure maiuly Scliinipcr's and though many are 

 uutonablc the article will be more easily read by mauy. 



