ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 403 



General. 



Inheritance of Characters in Oat-Breeding.* — F. M. Surface has 

 studied the behaviour of certain glume characters resulting from the 

 crossing of Arena fatua with A. sativa, Kherson variety. The wild 

 parent has black or dark-brown glumes ; the grains have geniculate, 

 twisted awns ; the back of each grain is pubescent, and round the base 

 is a thick ring of short hairs ; there is also a basal, sucker-like ring 

 which facilitates shattering. In the cultivated parent the grain is 

 yellow, and rarely has an awn ; there is no pubescence, and the base is 

 narrow and contracted, so that the grain does not shatter. The F^ 

 plants are usually intermediate between the two parents ; the grain is 

 of a light-brown colour, with medium awns on the lower grains of the 

 spikelets ; the lower grains are pubescent, and have bases somewhat like 

 those of the cultivated parent. About 465 F., and 70 Fg plants were 

 obtained, and from these it was proved that the wild parent carries 

 genes for grey and yellow as well as for black, and the ratios approximate 

 to those of Nilsson-Ehle. The cultivated base of the grain is dominant, 

 and its heterozygous condition is clearly seen in most plants. There 

 appears to be reason for believing that the characters mentioned above 

 as belonging to the wild base are due to the existence of separate genes, 

 but it is uncertain to what extent these character-genes are linked to or 

 separate from one another. 



CRYPTOGAMS. 



Pteridophyta. 

 (By A. Gepp, M.A. F.L.S.) 



Fossil Fern Monstrosity.f— A. Hollick describes and figures a new 

 genus and species of fossil fern — AnomalofiUcites monstrosus — from the 

 Tertiary (Fort Union Formation), at Kern Ranch, Dawson County, 

 Montana. It appears to be a monstrous form, with some of its pinnae 

 bipinnate. For comparison with these, some photographs of similar 

 occurrences in the fronds of JS^qjhrolepis exaltata are given. 



Trichomanes Petersii.:!: — E. W. Graves describes the finding of a 

 new station for the rare fern Trichomanes Petersii in a damp gorge on 

 Sand Mountain in Alabama, and gives figures of its structure drawn 

 from the type plant gathered in 1853. 



Bryophyta. 

 (By A. Gepp.) 



Herberta.§ — A. "W. Evans gives an account of the hepatic geTius 

 Berberia, with a revision of the species found in Europe, Canada and 



* Genetics, i. (1916) pp. 252-86 (2 pis.). 



t Mem New York Bot. Gard., vi. (1916) pp. 473-4 (2 pis.). 



X Amer. Fern Journ., vii. (1917) pp. 51—5 (2 pis.). 



§ Bull. Torrey Bot. Club, xliv. (1917) pp. 191-222 (pi. and figs.). 



