608 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



ferns collected in New Guinea by E. Werner. Among them is the new 

 genus llrniijilrris. which differs from Pteris in having the upper margin 

 of the laciniaj free from sori. 



Deciduous British Ferns.* — C. T. Druery writes of the deciduous 

 British ferns. Only one of these (Polypodium vulgare) has the property 

 of throwing off the fronds at a basal joint, and this occurs in the spring. 

 The fronds of other species die down on the approach of winter. There 

 are, in fact, three groups : — (1) those that die down entirely in autumn, 

 viz. lady fern, bladder fern, oak and beech ferns, mountain Lastrea, 

 marsh fern, and royal fern ; (2) those that retain their greenness if 

 sheltered during winter, viz. soft male fern and broad buckler fern ; (3) 

 the evergreen group, viz. hard male fern, spleenwort, hart's-tongue, 

 shield ferns, and Blechnum. 



Fossil Pteridophyta.f — T. 6. Halle gives an account of some 

 herbaceous Lycopodiacea? of the palaaozoic and mesozoic periods, a sub- 

 ject which was studied by Goldenberg fifty years ago. It is clear that 

 the species of Lycopodium and Selaginella of the present day must be 

 descended from herbaceous ancestors, and not from the highly organised 

 dendroid Lepidodendroti and Sit/Maria. And such herbaceous forms 

 certainly existed in the Devonian. The author gives a resume of the 

 work of Goldenberg, Schimper, Renault, Kidston, Zeiller, and others. 

 He also adds descriptions of the following specimens : Lycopodites 

 Zeiller i sp. n., L. macrophyllus, L. scanicus, Selagiaellites primcevus, 

 S. elongatus. 



The same author % makes some remarks on the mesozoic Equisetacere 

 of Skane. 



Stigmaria with Centripetal Wood.§ — F. E. Weiss describes the 

 structure of a Stigmaria with centripetal wood, the first specimen 

 obtained from the English Coal Measures. It came from the Hard Beds 

 of Halifax. The author regards it rather as a Stigmarian axis than 

 as a stem of Lepidodendron niundum (as Williamson concluded from 

 a more fragmentary specimen) for the following reasons. The periderm 

 is very wide and has a peculiar structure, and exhibits the remains of 

 what must be rootlet-cushions, and there is no hard primary outer cortex. 

 The curious centrical lateral bundles, and the system of delicate reticulate 

 tracheids, show a likeness with S. Brardii Renault. The course of the 

 lateral bundles through the secondary wood is as in another Stigmaria. 

 The obvious centripetal development of the protoxylem, though more 

 characteristic of Lepidodendroid stems than of Stigmarian axes, does 

 yet undoubtedly occur in some examples of Stigmaria. The primary 

 wood agrees closely with that of L&pidodendron mundum (now identified 

 with Bothrodendron), and possibly both may belong to the same plant. 



Deceased North American Pteridologists.|) — J. H. Barnhart gives 

 a chronological list of the published papers of the late Professor Lucien 



* Pern Bulletin, xv. (1907) pp. 75-6. 



t Arkiv Botanik, vii. No. 5 (1908) 17 pp. (3 pis.). 



X Tom. cit., No. 7 (7 pp.). 



§ Ann. of Bot., xxii. (190S) pp. 221-30 (1 pi.). 



|| Bull. Torrey Bot. Club, xxxv. (190S) pp. 17-38. 



