614 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



uncertainty attaching to several of the older species, the incorrectly 

 determined specimens in the herbaria of the older authors, and the 

 multitude of new, but often doubtful, species described since 1*70. The 

 author's purpose here is to give critical descriptions and figures of 

 the oldest species in the order of their original publication, up to about 

 the year 1861, at the same time reducing many of the newer species to 

 the rank of synonyms. He treats some thirteen species in this way, after 

 studying the type-material in each case. 



Propagula of the Genus Barbula.* — J. Maheu writes about the 

 propagula and bulbils obtained by experimental culture of some species 

 of Barbula. Some species, which do not normally produce them, may 

 be made to do so by submitting them to special biologic conditions, 

 such as confinement in a moist chamber. After a lapse of one to 

 three months, propaguliferous protonemal filaments sprout from stems, 

 leaves, and fragments of sporogonium. The propagula are pluricellular 

 spheres about T V mm. in diameter, which fall off and develop into 

 moss-plants. The plant cannot maintain its existence indefinitely by 

 means of propagula ; but these latter serve to prolong its life until 

 suitable conditions arise for the development of sexual organs and pro- 

 duction of a sporogonium. The production of propagula is chiefly due 

 to humidity ; light and darkness favour respectively the formation of 

 protonemal and rhizoidal filaments. Rhizoids, protonema, propagula, 

 bulbils, and leafy stems, are fundamentally homologous, being adaptations 

 of one and the same organ to different conditions of life. 



L fc> i 



Gasterogrimmia in Hungary.! — I. Gyorffy shows that three species 

 of this section of Grimm ia which occur in Europe have been found also 

 in Hungary, and claims that a fourth species, 67. poikilostoma, originally 

 collected in Auvergne by Gasilien, and later in Dauphine by Sebille, 

 has also been gathered in Transylvania. He gives a table of measure- 

 ments of the Transylvanian plants. 



Bryum zonatum a Philonotis.J — W. Monkemeyer discusses the 

 question of what Bryum zonatum Schimp. really is. Schimper thought 

 it to be allied to B. Marratii. Limpricht at first took it to be a Bryum, 

 near B. Limprichtii, but later inclined to Hagen's view, that it should be 

 excluded from the genus. Monkemeyer having obtained a small amount 

 of the original material collected by C. G. Lorentz, finds that it resembles 

 a Philonotis, and comes to the conclusion that it is a non-papillate form 

 of Philonotis seriata, analogous to the non-papillate var. mollis of 

 P. calcarea. 



European Hepatics.§ — V. Schiffner publishes critical remarks upon 

 the specimens issued in the fifth fasciculus of his " Hepaticse Europaaa? 

 Exsiccatse," Nos. 201-50. The genera treated of are SpTienolobus (12 

 specimens), Acrobolbus, with figure (1), Anastr&pta (8), Plagiochila (16), 

 Pedinophyllum (4), L&ptoscyphus (9). The species, their varieties and 



* Comptes Rendus, cxlvi. (1908) pp. 1161-3. 



t Rev. Brvolog., xxxv. (1908) pp. 97-8. 



j Hedwigia, xlvii. (1908) p. 305. 



§ Ber. Naturw. Med. Verein. Innsbruck, xxxi. (1908) Beilage, 70 pp. (1 pi.). 



