ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 205 



Ferns of West Africa.— C. Christensen* gives a new description of 

 Leptochilus (JBolbitis) acrostichoides, a fern from French tropical "West 

 Africa, originally named by Afzelius, and recently collected by 

 A. Chevalier. 



H. Christ f describes four new ferns from French tropical West 

 Africa, collected by A. Chevalier, and adds some critical notes on a few 

 other species. 



Bolivian Ferns.J — E. Rosenstock publishes descriptions of sixteen 

 new ferns and one fern-ally, collected in 1906-7 in the Bolivian province 

 of Yungas by 0. Buchtien. H. Christ is part author for some of the 

 species. 



New Ferns. § — E. Rosenstock publishes descriptions of the following 

 new ferns : Notochlsena Herzof/iiand Polypodium Herzogii from Bolivia ; 

 Asplenium Lademannianwn and A. prsegracile from German East 

 Africa ; and Alsophila aquilind var. Maxoni, from Cuba. 



New Fossil Species of Salvinia.|| — P. H. Fritel gives a diagnosis 

 of a new fossil Salvinia — S. Zeilleri — found by him in clay at Cassoy 

 (Seine-et-Marne), and belonging to the early Tertiary period. He 

 makes an analysis of the living species of the genus, and of the fossil 

 representatives which have been recorded, and compares the two sets. 

 The most ancient forms of the genus (S. elliptica, of America, and 

 S. Zeilleri of Europe) are comparable to living forms which occur in 

 the tropics ; those which are found in the Oligocene and Miocene 

 belong to the type of the living S. nutans. The conditions of climate 

 prevailing in the Paris basin at the epoch when S. Zeilleri nourished, 

 must be almost identical with those which now prevail in the regions 

 where S. auriculata (so nearly allied to S. Zeilleri), is found in tropical 

 America. The extremely close relationship between the most ancient 

 forms and certain existing species, indicates that the evolution of the 

 genus Salvinia, since its earliest known appearance, has been almost nil. 



Fossil Prothallus. 1" — W. T. Gordon describes and figures the 

 prothallus of the fossil Lepidodendron Veltheimianum, that is to say, the 

 prothallus preserved within the wall of the megaspore ; and just within 

 the three-lobed opening at the apex of the spore is the small-celled 

 archegonial tissue, but no archegonia could be detected. 



Obituary Notice of Alvah A. Eaton. — R. G. Leavitt** writes an 

 obituary notice of the late Alvah Augustus Eaton, who was bom in 

 1865 and died in September, 1908, and had devoted much of his life to 

 the collection of plants, and to the study of North American ferns and 

 fern-allies. M. A. Day tt supplies a list of the botanical writings of the 

 late A. A. Eaton. These are fifty -two in number, and date from 

 1896 to 1908. 



* Bull. Soc. Bot. France, liv. Mem. 8a (1907) pp. 29-30 (rig.). 



t Op. cit., lv.Mem. 8b (190S) p. 105-9. 



J Fedde, Repertoriurn, Berlin, v. (1908) pp. 228-39. 



§ Op. cit., vi. (1908) pp. 175-9. 



|| Journ. de Bot., xxi (1908) pp. 190-8 (figs.). 

 i Trans. Proc. Bot. Soc. Edinburgh, xxiii (1908) pp. 330-32 (pi.). 

 ** Rhodora, x. (1908) pp. 209-11. ft Tom. cit., pp. 211-14. 



