204 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



Waters, C. E. — Asplenium ebeneum proliferum. 



[A. note on the conditions that cause proliferation in this species.] 



Bhodora, v. (1903) pp. 272-3 (tig. in text). 



Wells, W. E. — Adaptability in Ferns. 



[A list of 28 ferns from very varied habitats successfully acclimatised in a 

 simple fernery.] Ohio Naturalist, iii. (1903) pp. 358-9. 



Wooton, E. O. — The Terns of the Organ Mountains. 



[List of 20 species and a variety gathered in New Mexico.]' 



Torreya, iii. (1903) pp. 101-4. 



Bryophyta. 



Mosses of Java.* — M. Fleischer publishes the first volume of the 

 mosses of the Flora of Buitenzorg, including all the mosses of Java, 

 with many of the species of the Malay Archipelago, Polynesia, Australia, 

 Ceylon and India, which are included for the sake of critical comparison. 

 Every species is fully described, many novelties are inserted, and keys to 

 the genera and species are supplied. The author is so convinced of the 

 systematic importance of the characters of the capsule and especially 

 of its peristome, that he makes these the foundation of his classification, 

 and attaches far less value to such vegetative characters as the acro- 

 carpic-or pleurocarpic position of the inflorescence, the distichous or 

 spiral arrangement of the foliage, the areolation of the leaves, etc. His 

 long residence of five years at Buitenzorg enabled him to make a 

 thorough study of the peristome, as well as of the development and 

 anatomy of the mosses, and to investigate biological and phylogenetic 

 details, e.g. the curious dicecism of Maeromitrium, the water-sacs of 

 Cyatkophorum taitense, the formation of gemmaj in an inflorescence or 

 at the foot of a sporogonium, the emission of rhizoids from a seta ; 

 and he discovered the sporogonium of the protonematoid Ephemeropsis. 

 The beautifully illustrated " Bryologia Javanica " (1855-70) of Dozy 

 and Molkenboer has now fallen behind the times, and subsequent papers 

 on the subject are very scattered. Fleischer's work adds much to what 

 was previously known, and is on quite modern lines. The first volume 

 contains the Sphagnales and the Haplolepideas, with descriptions of 

 194 species. It is entirely in German. 



Danish Species of Amblystegium.t — A. Hansen publishes a re- 

 vision of this genus, redescribing the species, fourteen of which occur 

 in Denmark. Three of these are new to science : A. paludosum, A. 

 saxicola and A. atrovirens, and their descriptions are given both in 

 Danish and English. A key to the species is supplied, based chiefly 

 upon the presence or absence of a leaf-nerve, the transverse section, and 

 the breadth and the length of the nerve, the shape of the leaf -apex, and 

 the character of the leaf-cells and basal cells. The author describes 

 also another new species, A. littorale, from the Faroes, previously 

 regarded as a variety of A. serpens. 



American Mosses.— M. F. Miller | publishes a note on Pogonatum 

 urnigerum, describing how the calyptra gradually is turned inside out 



* Die Musei der Flora von Buitenzorg, i., Leiden, 1904, xxxi. and 386 pp., 71 figs, 

 in text. t Bot. Tidsskrift., xxv. (1903) pp. 387-408 (11 fias. in text). 



\ Bryologist, vii. (1904) pp. 4-5 (with figA 



