clxxviii GENERAL SUMMARY OF SCIENTIFIC AND 



CRYPTOGAMY ; HIGHER CRYPTOGAMS. 



During the year the attention of botanists has been more particu- 

 larly drawn to the Hepaticoi than to any other portion of the, higher 

 cryptogams. Prantl and Leitgeb have frequently discussed the 

 subject in the journals and society meetings, but have not published 

 articles of any length. In ferns, the development of the j^rothallus 

 of the CyatliecE has been studied by Dr. Bauke. Dr. Stahl, of Stras- 

 burg, describes the production of protonemata from the sporogo- 



nium of mosses. 



LICHENS. 



In a morphological point of view, very little has been done with 

 this grou^D during the year. The discussion of the Schwendeuer 

 theory, which for the last few years has been very animated, has 

 somewhat subsided. Winter has made contributions to the knowl- 

 edge of tlie crustaceous lichens in the case of the genus Sphcerom- 



pTiale. 



FUNGL 



In this department great activity has prevailed, both in the de- 

 scriptions of new species, which have been limited principally to 

 pamphlet articles, and in investigations with regard to the develop- 

 ment of the different orders. The absorbing topic has been the fer- 

 tilization, by means of a carjDOgone, of certain species of Cojyrimis, 

 wdiich was supposed to be the key to the develoj^ment of all the 

 Hyinenomycetes. In 1874 Rees announced the discovery of a carpo- 

 gone in Coprimis, and was soon confirmed by Van Tieghem, of Paris, 

 in the Comptes-Bendus, February, 1875. A. short time afterward, 

 however. Van Tieghem reported in the Comptes-Bendus that he had 

 been w-rong in supposing that what he considered the spermatia 

 were the male organs, as he had found subsequently that they ger- 

 minated, and were consequently a form of stylospores. During the 

 present year the discussion has been continued by Rees, Brefeld, 

 and Van Tieghem in the Botanische Zeitwig and Comptes-Bendus ; 

 and Van Tieghem and Brefeld both now believe that what was sup- 

 posed to be a carpogone in Coprinus has nothing to do with sexual 

 reproduction. Van Tieghem goes farther, and hints that tlie so- 

 called reproduction by a carpogone is, in most of the Ascomycetes, an 

 entirely asexual process, judging by his observations on Clmtomium, 

 which are not yet published in full. Brefeld denies the existence 

 of any group of Carposporem as described by Sachs, founding his 

 statement on the fict that in a new species of Mortierella^ which 

 belongs undoubtedly to the Zygomycetes^ a carposporic fruit is de- 

 veloped. In the Annales des Sciences^ Cornu gives in detail his '' Ob- 

 servations on the Germination of Spermatia," which he thinks can 

 not be considered male organs. Dr. Hermann Bauke has studied the 

 development of certain pycnidia, and finds, as Tulasne has already 



