72 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING 10 



Introduction to British Mosses.* — Sir Edward Fry issues a second 

 edition of his little book on British Mosses, which grew out of a lecture 

 delivered by him in 1891 at the Royal Institution, and which forms an 

 introduction to a study of the classification, life-history, modes of 

 reproduction, and structure of mosses, and of the important services 

 they render in nature. In this latter respect, emphasis is laid upon the 

 role played by the Sphagnaceae and their relation with the formation of 

 peat and with the ancient forest-beds. The figures in the present 

 edition have been re-drawn and added to. 



Muscinese of Invernessshire.f — A. Wilson and J. A. Wheldon 

 give a list of seventy-seven species of mosses and twenty-one of hepatics, 

 with numerous varieties collected by them during a brief visit to East 

 Invernessshire during July 1908. The weather being bad prevented 

 them from exploring the summits of the Cairngorm range as they 

 intended ; hence their collections were principally made in the Forest of 

 Rothiemurchus. The authors give a sketch of the vegetation as they 

 found it. 



Muscinese of North Devon.:}:— C. E. Larter publishes a note upon 

 the interesting species of Cryptogams found on the north coast of 

 Devonshire in the past year. Among them are eleven mosses and six 

 sphagna and a hepatic new to the county, and four hepatics which have 

 not been found there for more than thirty years. 



Distribution of Lunularia in Britain. § — S. M. Macvicar calls for 

 an investigation of the distribution of Lunularia in the British Islands. 

 Although this plant, like some other Mediterranean species, may be 

 truly native on our south coast, it has certainly often been introduced 

 with garden plants. Its present distribution ought to be mapped out, 

 its method of extension ascertained, and its effect upon other species 

 (for example, upon Marchantia) noted. In the south of Scotland it is 

 widely distributed in gardens, and is abundant in ravines near gardens. 

 It is more rare in the highlands. It grows in profusion in ravines near 

 Edinburgh ; but it was apparently non-existent there in Greville's time, 

 and hence is not mentioned by that observant botanist. 



Means of Distribution of Hepaticae.|| — H. R. Yeates publishes 

 some notes upon the distribution of some thalloid Hepatica? mostly in 

 the south of England, especially upon Metzgeria furcata, Dumortiera 

 irrigua, Lunularia cr aetata, Marchantia polymorpha, and Fegatella conica. 

 His contention is that these species never, or rarely, succeed in forming 

 spores, and that their rapid propagation is effected by means of detached 

 gemmaa, thallidia, or fragments, normally conveyed by water and rarely 

 by animal agencies. The habitat of such plants is where moisture is 

 abundant. 



Rare Scandinavian species of Cephalozia.1T — H. W. Arnell and 

 C. Jensen describe and illustrate some rare Scandinavian species of 



* London : Witherby and Co., 1908, 2nd ed., viii.and 72 pp. (40 figs.), 

 f Journ. Bot., xlvi. (1908) pp. 347-356. ' 



X Tom. cit., p. 393. § Tom. cit., pp. 382-4. 



|| New Pbytologist, vii. (1908) pp. 167-71. 

 i Bot, Not. Lund, 1908, pp. 1-16 (8 figs.). 



