196 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



beginning with a general discussion of the anatomy of the plants and 

 passing on to the systematic treatment of the group. He discards the 

 name Harpidium as being already in use for a genus of Lichens, and 1 

 accepts Drepanocladus CM. as a better generic name. He then offers 

 a scheme of classification containing several sections and, in all, twenty 

 European species with their synonymies ; and, after describing in full 

 some of the less known species with their varieties and forms, he con- 

 cludes with some critical remarks. 



Streptopogon.* — E. S. Salmon monographs the genus Streptopogon, 

 Twenty-six species had been ascribed to it. Nine of these must be 

 excluded, as the author shows, and the residual seventeen may be re- 

 ferred to five species and one variety. These five species, maintained 

 by the author, are all South American, but two of them are found also 

 in Madagascar. The genus and species are defined at great length and 

 supplied with full synonymy and distribution, and abundant historical 

 and critical observations. A bibliography and three plates w T ith ninety- 

 seven figures are included. 



Calyptopogon. t — E. S. Salmon discusses the history and synonymy 

 of the Chilian moss, Calyptopogon mnioides Broth., which was originally 

 figured and described by Schwaegrichen as Baroula mnioides. It was 

 then confused with B. prostrata Mont, by C. Miiller, and later on was 

 redescribed as a new moss as B. crispata by Hampe, and as B. crispatula 

 and B. Wilhelmii by C. Miiller, also as Streptopogon Hookeri by R. Brown. 

 Its distribution is now extended to Patagonia and Ecuador, and also to 

 Australia, Tasmania, and New Zealand. The author discusses the value 

 of Calyptopogon as a genus, and shows that its systematic position is 

 between Streptopogon and Barbida {Syntrichia) ; points out that the 

 limb of the leaf is unistratose, despite what Carl Miiller has said about 

 it ; gives the full synonymy for the species, a lengthy description and 

 the geographical distribution, and describes a new variety from New 

 Zealand. 



Sematophyllum in North America.} — E. G. Britton gives a de- 

 tailed figure of Sematophyllum reeurvans and discusses its history, affini- 

 ties, and synonymy. Authors are much at variance as to the latter and 

 as to some allied species owing to the loss of Michaux's types. The 

 degree of variability of the species is not yet settled. The plant occurs 

 in Canada and the eastern and central United States. It is contrasted 

 with S. delicatulum. 



Orthotrichum in the United States. § — A. J. Grout publishes a 

 monograph of the genus Orthotrichum and describes ten species that 

 are found in the United States, giving detailed figures of eight of them. 

 He simplifies the differences as much as possible, to enable the student 

 to discriminate the species with a pocket-lens. He calls attention to the 

 continued shrinkage that occurs in herbarium specimens, and insists 



* Ann. of Bot., xviii. (1903) pp. 107-50 (3 pis.). 



f Journ. of Bot., xli. (1903) pp. 1-8, 4G-51 (1 table). 



t Bryologist, vi. (1903) pp. 1-3 (1 pi.). 



§ Tom. cit., pp. 4-13 (5 pis. and 3 figs, in text). 



