370 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



ferns found in considerable numbers in the Buitenzorg Herbarium 

 either unnamed or wrongly determined. He describes the novelties. 

 The specimens were collected in Java, Sumatra, Borneo, Celebes, and 

 other Malayan islands, and New Guinea. There are forty-nine new 

 species and some varieties. Critical remarks are added to some of the 

 older species. 



In a second paper * he describes five more new species and some 

 varieties. 



Ferns of the Carboniferous Period.!— F. Behrend divides the 

 Sphenopteridese into Sphenopteroidege and Ovopteroidese, according to 

 differences of venation. In the former group are Cuneatopteris and 

 Sphenopteris ; in the latter group are Ovopteris and OvojJteridium—a, 

 new genus. 



Fern Bibliography for 19064 — C. Brick, of Hamburg, has pub- 

 lished a classified bibliography of all references to ferns for the year 

 1906. It covers nearly a hundred pages, and treats of almost five 

 hundred titles, arranged under ten headings, and supplemented by a list 

 of all new species and varieties named in 1906. 



Bryophyta. 



(By A. Gepp.) 



Germination and Sex in Sphaerocarpus.§ — C. Douin, in response 

 to a request from Professor Strasburger, has conducted a series of 

 experiments in order to determine whether in Sphseroca?pus the four 

 plants germinating from a given tetrad of spores are of different sex, 

 whether two become male, and two become female. After pointing out 

 how the male and female plants of Spheerocarpus may readily be dis- 

 tinguished, Douin gives an account of the observations he made of 

 eighty-one little groups of plants collected at random at Chavannes. 

 The results are divided into twenty cases ranged under three heads — 

 (1) normal cases ; (2) doubtful anomalies ; (3) distinctly abnormal 

 cases. 1. The normal cases were sixty-three, showing that, as a general 

 rule, the four spores of a tetrad produce two male and two female 

 thalli ; and that, as the examined groups always consisted of four or 

 eight thalli, the spores clearly remain as a rule united in tetrads until 

 germination. 2. Anomalous cases thirteen, showing either that the 

 tetrads became broken and the spores separated, or that some spores 

 failed to germinate. 3. Four abnormal cases. Further, Douin shows 

 that S. terrestris can readily be distinguished from S. californicus by 

 comparatively longer male involucre. 



Spore Formation and Nuclear Division in Mnium hornum.|| — 

 M. Wilson gives an account of spore formation and nuclear division in 

 Mnium hornum. 1. Fertilisation takes place during May ; and early 

 in the following January the single-celled archesporium can be recog- 



* Bull, du Dep. Agric. Indes Neerlandaises, xxi. (1908) 9 pp. (4 pis.), 

 t Jahrb. k. Preuss. Geol. Landesanst.,xxix. (1908) 52 pp. See also Bot. Zeit. 

 1909, 2te Abt., p. 70. J Pern. Bulletin, xvii. (1909) pp. 31-2. 



§ Rev. Bryolog., xxxvi. (1909) pp. 37-41 (figs.). 

 l| Ann. of Bot., xxiii. (1909) pp. 141-157 (2 pis.). 



