552 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



Underwood, L. M. — The Early writers on Ferns and their Collections. II. J. E. 

 Smith, 1759-1828; Swartz, 1760-1818; Willdenow, 1765-1812. 



Torreya, iv. (1904) pp. 49-52. 



Urspring, A. — Beitrage zum Bewegungsmechanismus einiger Pteridophyten 

 sporangien. (Notes on the mecbanisin of movement of some fern-sporangia.) 



Ber. Deutsch. Bot. Gesell, xxii. (1904) pp. 73-84. 



Vries, H. de. — Schnurhiezen (Equisetum). Album der Natuur, 1904, pp. 233-46. 



Zeiller, E. — Observations au sujet dn mode de fructification des Cycadofilicinees. 

 (Observations on the subject of the mode of fructification of the Cycadofilicineee.y 



Comptes Bendus, cxxxviii. (1904) pp. 663-5. 



Bryophyta. 



British Mosses.* — H. N. Dixon publishes a second and enlarged 

 edition of the ' Student's Handbook of British Mosses,' in which he has 

 corrected and supplemented the test of his notes, revised some of the 

 genera, e.g. Sphagnum, Weisia, Hypnum, introduced some 30 recent 

 additional species, and drawn 5 new plates. He has inserted the deriva- 

 tions of the genera, and employed the index as a means of hinting at 

 the right pronunciation of generic and specific names. 



Mosses of Mark Brandenburg-.f — C. Warnstorf, having published 

 his monographs of the hepatics and sphagna of the Mark, is now occupied 

 with the mosses. The present part is concerned principally with the 

 cleistocarpous genera and the tribes Weisieae, Dicraneee, Fissidentese, 

 Seligerieee, Ditrichea?, Pottieaa and Trichostomea?. The descriptions are 

 carefully written, and are accompanied by keys to the orders, tribes, 

 genera and species. 



Ectropothecium4 — E. S. Salmon, having examined the type speci- 

 mens of some species of the troublesome genus Ectropotliecium, has been 

 able to clear away much confusion. Leskia rutilans Brid. and Vesicu- 

 lar ia malachitica C. Muell. are identical with Ectropothecium vesiculare 

 (Schwaegr.), to a variety of which are reduced Hookeria Poeppigiana 

 Hampe, Hypnum conostegum C. Muell. and E. flavoviride Mitt. 

 E. crassicaule Mitt, is a distinct species. Hookeria prcelonga Walk. Arn. 

 must not be referred to E. vesiculare, but rather to E. amphibolum 

 Spruce. The "Hypnum Montagnei Schiinp." of C. Wright's Cuban 

 Mosses (No. 120) is compounded of some of the above plants. The 

 author re-describes at length E. vesiculare and its variety, and adds an 

 abundance of critical notes. 



French Hepatic£e.§ — Abbe Boulay, who published his work on the 

 French moss-flora twenty years ago, now gives us a companion volume on 

 the hepatics, and promises a final one on the Sphagnacea3. Beginning 

 with a preface and bibliography, the author discusses at some length the 

 structure and physiology of the hepatics and their geographical distri- 



* Student's Handbook of British Mosses, ed. ii. (Eastbourne, 1904) pp. 1., 586 

 (65 pis.). 



t Kryptogamenflora der Mark Brandenburg, ii. (1. Laubmoose) Leipzig, 1904, 

 240 pp., with figs. 



X Bull. Torrey Bot. Club, xxxi. (1904) pp. 309-24 (2 pis.). 



§ Muscinees de la France. II. He'patiques. Paris, 1904, pp. clxviii. 224, 15. 



