ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 63 



wide. The bracts are truncate at base and ovate-acuminate above, and 

 entire. The sporangia apparently spring from the surface of the bract 

 and appear to be spheroidal, but are probably reniform. The vegetative 

 organs are absent. 



British Fern-varieties.* — C. T. Druery publishes a book on British 

 ferns and their varieties, illustrated with 40 coloured plates, 96 nature 

 prints, and 819 woodcuts. Few as are the species of indigenous British 

 ferns, their forms are infinite even in the wild state. They have indeed 

 been estimated at nearly 2000 by some authors. The present work is 

 intended to be a complete compendium of all recorded forms for the use 

 of the practical amateur rather than for the systematic botanist. The 

 successive chapters treat of British ferns as a hobby ; life-history of 

 ferns : fern propagation and culture ; fern selection ; hybridizing ; 

 multiple parentage : rockeries, etc. : wild " sports " and how found ; 

 types of variation ; fern foes and remedies ; and then the species, 

 varieties, etc., are treated in alphabetical order, with brief descriptions. 

 The long series of nature prints is selected from a collection of some 

 300 prepared by the late A. M. Jones of Clifton. 



New Hybrid Asplenium.f — R. de Litardiere describes a new hybrid 

 fern, x Asplenium Patjesii = A. foresiacwn x Trickomanes, gathered at 

 St. Laurent-des-Nieres, in the department of Herault by E. Pages. It 

 approaches A. Trickomanes in its brown stipes and its oval-obtuse leaf- 

 segments ; and A.foresiacum in its hairy thick rachisand in the division 

 and form of the teeth of its leaf-segments. It also approaches the 

 hybrid x A.doloswn Milde {A. Adiantum-nigrum x Trickomanes). The 

 writer gives new French localities for two other hybrids, x A. Murbeckii 

 Dorfler (A Ruta-muraria x septentrionale) and x A. Gautieri Christ 

 (A.fontanum x viride). 



Mexican Ferns. J — H. Christ publishes descriptions of five new 

 ferns collected by Gr. Arsene near Morelia, in the province of Michoacan, 

 in the middle of the high plateau of Mexico, and also nearPuebla. The 

 new species are Polypodium (GoniqpMebium) pachyrMzon, Notholaena 

 Arsenii, Pell am Arsenii, Dryopteris tremula and D.patula var. Moreliae. 



Ferns of South Mexico.§ — J. N. Rovirosa has prepared an account 

 of the fern-flora of the south of Mexico, which is published after his 

 death at the expense of J. D. Casasiis. It consists of a classification 

 and description (in Spanish) of the ferns of that region, and — what is 

 the most striking feature of the work — a series of seventy beautifully 

 drawn quarto plates, in which the plant-habit, the venation, the sorus, 

 sporangia, scales, etc., are shown. Six new species and one variety are 

 described . 



* British Ferns and their Varieties. Loudon : Routledge (1910) 8vo. 459 pp. 

 (40 coloured plates, 96 nature prints, 319 woodcuts). 



t Bull. Acad. Intern. Geogr. Bot., xix. (1910) pp. 204-5. 



X Notulae Systeniaticae Mus. Paris, i. (1910) pp. 231-5. 



§ Pteridographia del sur de Mexico. Mexico : Escalaute (1910) 298 pp. 

 (70 pis.). 



