474 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



bryologists of the nineteenth century. Too mnch importance was 

 attached to such a valueless character as the form and direction of the 

 perigonial leaves ; and the parallelism of forms exhibited by some of the 

 species escaped notice. Loeske and Dismier have cleared away many 

 errors. In Dismier's monograph the differential characters of the species 

 are drawn from the form of the cauline leaves, the width of their nerve, 

 the shape and duplication of their teeth, the position of their papillae, 

 etc. These are constant characters, and taken from the vegetative 

 organs, thus facilitating the naming of sterile specimens. Dismier 

 admits eight species for France : — /'. rigida, P. marchica, P. capillaris, 

 P. csespitosa, P. fontana, P. tomentella, P. seriata, P. calcarea, and refers 

 sundry other species to them as synonyms. 



Heterocladium Macounii.* — I. Theriot discusses the affinities of a 

 Black Forest moss which had been referred to Heterocladium Macounii, 

 a North American species. After making a comparative study of 

 authentic material of types and various forms, he was able to come to 

 a definite conclusion. H. heteropterum Bry. Eur. possesses certain 

 characters ; H. Macounii Best possesses certain other characters. The 

 Black Forest plant much approaches the latter. But there are inter- 

 mediate forms which show that H. heteropterum is a polymorphic plant 

 with the Black Forest plant at one extreme of its range of forms — var. 

 robustum Zett. H. heteropterum is European ; H. Macounii is American. 

 There is a parallelism of European and American species and forms. 



Belgium Forms of Harpidium.f — H. van den Broeck gives a list of 

 the forms of Harpidium found in the environs of Antwerp, arranged 

 according to F. Renauld's monograph in T. Husnot's Muscologia gallica, 

 namely eight species, two of which — H. aduncum and H. fluitans — are 

 represented by numerous forms. 



Sphaerocarpos.4: — C. C. Haynes publishes a revision of the genus 

 Sphserocarpos, giving descriptions and illustrations of the species, and 

 adding a new species, 8. Mans, from the state of Washington in North 

 America. She also furnishes a key for facilitating the recognition of 

 the species, six in number. One of these, the type, is European ; 

 another occurs in North America, Europe, and Tangier ; another 

 in the southern United States ; another in California ; and the re- 

 maining one in Chile. In four of the species the spores remain per- 

 manently united in tetrads. Sphserocarpos being one of the most simply 

 constructed among the hepatics, is of interest and importance from the 

 evolutionary and philogenetic point of view. 



Monoselenium tenerum Griffith. § — K. Goebel publishes his thirteenth 

 article of Archegoniatai studies, and gives an account of the lost and 

 unknown Monoselenium tenerum of Griffith. His summary runs as 

 follows : 1. A very remarkable Marchantiaceous plant from Canton 

 agrees fundamentally with Griffith's Monoselenium, which must not be 

 confounded with Cyathodium. 2. It is characterised by a total absence 



* Rev. Bryolog., xxxvii. (1910) pp. 62-4. 



+ Bull. Soc. Roy. Bot. Belg., xlvi. (1909) pp. 300-6. 



% Bull. Torrey Bot. Club, xxxvii. (1910) pp. 215-30 (8 pis.). 



§ Flora, n.s., i. (1910) pp. 43-97 (45 figs.). 



