ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 327 



North American Mosses.* — J. M. Holzinger discusses the external 

 structure of Anacolia, and amends Scbimper's description of the genus 

 by the admission of a rudimentary peristome in certain cases, thus 

 bringing within the generic limits two North American species pre- 

 viously placed in Bartramia and Giyphocarpus. J. Cardot f publishes 

 notes on eight North American mosses. J. F. Collins % corrects some 

 erroneous citations made by Limpricht, Schimper and others, from Nees 

 and Hornschuch's Bryologia Germanica, concerning Weisia and Hymeno- 

 stomum. P. M. Towle and A. E. Gilbert § give some notes on the 

 fertilisation of Polytrichum at Vermont. The antheridia and arche- 

 gonia reach maturity in April ; and fifteen months later the spores in 

 the sporophyte are ripe for dispersal. 



Patagonian and Fuegian Mosses. |] — P. Dusen gives an account of 

 the 71 mosses collected by J. B. Hatcher in 1896-7, near Rio Chico, 

 etc., including 24 new species. The latter are fully described and 

 figured. Two long lists follow : consisting of (1) described species ; 

 (2) species named, but not yet described in print. The same writer 

 also gives an account of the leading features of the vegetation of 

 western Patagonia from his own experience, and conveys therein much 

 information about the habitats and distribution of the Muscinea?. 



Hawaiian Mosses. IT — E. Levier gives an historical account of the 

 collections of mosses which have been made in the Sandwich Islands, 

 and of papers published upon them. Having submitted to V. F. 

 Brotherus a set of specimens gathered by D. D. Baldwin, he gives a 

 list of the determinations, comprising 163, of which 74 are new species. 

 14 are new to the archipelago, and 75 had been previously recorded. 

 The total number of species recorded for the islands is now 254, and 

 that of the genera is 86. The island of Maui yields the richest moss- 

 flora. 



Morphology and Biology of Ricciocarpus natans.** — J. F. Garber 

 describes the life-history of Ricciocarpus natans under the headings : 

 material and methods ; the thallus ; the sex-organs ; fertilisation ; the 

 sporophyte ; biology. When fruiting (in spring) the plant floats on 

 the surface. The plant is monoecious and bears the sex-organs in 

 definite groups, the antheridia preceding the archegonia. The earliest 

 division of the sporophyte is transverse or oblique ; and the early sub- 

 sequent divisions are irregular. Much nutritive material is excreted 

 into the capsule. There is no indication of elaters or of a sporophyte 

 foot ; but a structure, which is the physiological equivalent of a foot, 

 is developed from the basal cell of the archegonium. The gametophyte 

 number of chromosomes is four ; that of the sporophyte is eight. 

 Plants stranded on wet soil take root and lose their ventral plates, but 

 if inundated again are unable to resume the floating; condition unless 



* 



Bryolosist, v ii. (1904) pp. 23-9. t Tom. cit , pp. 30-1. 



% Tom. cit., pp. 32-3. ' § Tom. cit. pp. 35-6. 



j| Princeton Univ. Exped. Patagonia, viii. (1903) pp. 1-33; 63-125 (7 pis.; figs, 

 in text). 



1 Bull. Soc. Dot. Ital., 1901. pp. 7-25. 

 ** Bwt. Gazette, xxxvii. (1901) pp. 161-77 (2 pis. and figs.). 



