628 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



Chromosomes of Funaria hygrometrica.* — R. Beer describes a 

 simple method by which the distribution and number of the chromo- 

 somes in the dividing cells of mosses can be easily studied, despite the 

 smallness of the nuclei. A preparation of living spore mother-cells, 

 having been teased out in a physiological salt solution, was irrigated 

 with a little 1 per cent, potash solution containing a trace of Congo-red. 

 The chromosomes were immediately revealed distinctly, and were seen 

 to number four in the dividing cell and to be of a long rod-shape. By 

 division eight daughter-chromosomes are produced, four of which travel 

 to each pole. 



European Mosses.f— G-. Both is issuing a general illustrated flora of 

 the mosses of Europe, which will occupy two volumes to be published in 

 ten or twelve parts of 128 pages and 10 plates each. The total cost will 

 be nearly U. The first part contains the general introduction and some 

 of the cleistocarpous mosses. The author describes the main anatomical 

 features of the mosses, their modes of reproduction, their distribution 

 according to zones, soil, &c, and the part they play in the economy of 

 nature. He discusses the collecting and naming of specimens, and the 

 principal schemes of classification, and adds an extensive bibliography. 

 In the special systematic part of the work he provides descriptions of 

 the tribes, families, genera, species, &c, with notes on the distribution, 

 and figures each species. 



American Mosses.} — A. J. Grout is issuing a non-technical hand- 

 book of the more common mosses of the' north-eastern United States, 

 which will be completed in four or five parts, each costing a dollar. 

 The purpose is to enable students to identify with facility some 200 

 species, and to supply them with a knowledge of the structure and 

 natural history of the plant. The work is freely illustrated with figures 

 from standard works, and where necessary contains keys to the families, 

 genera, and species. The introduction treats of classification, collection 

 and preservation of specimens, methods of microscopical examination, 

 life-history and structure of the plants. An illustrated glossary is 

 provided. The descriptions are written in simple language, and are not 

 encumbered with iinnecessary detatls. 



Asexual Reproduction^ — F. Cavers gives a resume of the principal 

 results which have been published hitherto upon asexual reproduction 

 in hepatics, together with some new observations of his own. He passes 

 in review the tribes and families of the order, calling attention to the 

 various modes of this form of propagation that have been observed in 

 numerous species. Broadly speaking, it is accomplished in three ways — 

 either by the death of the old parts and the setting free of the younger 

 parts or branches as independent plants ; or by the production of 

 specialised gemmae ; or by the detaching of caducous adventive shoots. 

 In some species of Anthoceros asexual propagation takes place by means 

 of tubers. As long ago as 1774 Necker describes the process of regenera- 



* New Phytologist, ii. (1903) p. 166. 

 t 'Die Europ'aischen Laubinoose,' Leipzig, 1903, 128 pp. 



% 'Mosses with Hand-Lens and Microscope,' New York, 1903, part i., 86 pp., 

 10 plates, and 81 figs, in text. 



§ New Phytologist, ii. (1903) pp. 121-33, 155-65 (8 figs, in text). 



