ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 269 



spore mother-cell. Rarely more than eight spore mother-cells occur 

 in a sporangium ; Init whether they can all -form normal tetrads and 

 spores has not yet been determined. A. G. 



Duration of Prothallia of Lastrsea Filix-mas.— E .W. Phillips 

 (Annals of Botany, 1919, 33, 265-6). A description of the 

 remarkable form assumed by a caespitose crop of prothallia, which had 

 been put away in a covered basin, and forgotten for a period of twenty 

 months. In the feeble illumination each prothallium had grown up 

 vertically to a height of about 15 mm., and with a width of about 

 1-1*5 mm., and bore innumerable rootlets on the darker side, and 

 bristled with characteristic mucilage cells on the edges. Further, the 

 whole of the under surface was studded over with antheridia ; T5ut not 

 an archegonium could be found. Some of them were transplanted to a 

 more natural situation, and developed a natural appearance and produced 

 young sporophytes. But the rest of the crop was left in the original 

 position, and, though many of them gradually withered, a few retained 

 vitality for about six years from the date of sowing the spores. A. G. 



Contributions to a Knowledge of the Genus Pteris. II.— G. 

 HiERONYMUS {Hedwkjia, 1914, 55, 325-75 ; see also Bot. Centralbl, 

 1915, 128, 173). A continuation of the author's work on Fteris, in 

 which he discusses in detail the numerous species belonging to the 

 P. quadriaurita group. He differs from Hooker and Luerssen, who 

 included under this species many insufficiently described species, and he 

 insists on an extensive division of this polymorphous species with a view 

 to studying possible endemism. All the species of the section Eupteris 

 are placed in the P. quadriaurita group which have pinnate fronds with 

 more or less deeply pinnate lateral pinnae, the lowest pair (or pairs) of 

 which are auriculate— that is, one to three of them more or less resembling 

 the lateral pinnae, but always bearing small auriculate pinnnlae. The 

 already well-defined species recognized by the author are : — P. quadri- 

 aurita Retz., with var. Wightii Hieron. as a new variety ; P. armaia 

 Presl., P. flava Goldmann, P. glaucovirens Goldmann, P. argyrsea 

 Moore, P. aspericaulis Wall, P. tricolor Linden, P. Blumeana Ag., 

 P. spinescens Presl, and P. asperida J. Sm. Ten new species with 

 varieties are described. E. S. G. 



New Schizsea from Borneo (S. Hallieri). — Aladar Richter (3Iede- 

 deelingen van 's Rijks Herharium Leiden, 1916, No. 28, 38 pp., 5 pi). 

 A description of Schizaea Hallieri, a new species from West Borneo, 

 formerly referred to S. ftstulosa. The author discusses the wide dis- 

 tribution of S. tlstidosa Labill, a Polynesian species extending west to 

 Borneo and east to Chili, and constituting the main species of the group 

 Pectinatfe. He describes and figures the structure of the .stele and 

 chlorenchyma of the members of this group — S. fistidosa, S. amtraUs, 

 S. robusta, S. malaccana, S. Hallieri ; also their physiological and 

 systematic anatomy, and their sporophylls and spores. He then dis- 

 cusses the group from the point of A'iew of their xerophily, and the 

 effect which this has had upon the evolution of the species. A. G. 



