460 Bryophyten. — Pteridophyten. 



flore de Mader e. (Bull, de la Soc. port. des Sc. nat. Vol. 1. 

 Fase. 2. 1907.) 



Mr. Luisier a rencontre dans une coUection de Mousses recoltees 

 ä nie de Madfere par Mr. C. de Menezes, deux especes nouvelles 

 pour cette ile, le CincUdotus fontinaloides var. Madeviensis Card, et 

 Brachynienium philonotida Hpe, espece connue seulement de Ma- 

 dagascar. 



II indique encore une forme nouvelle: Astrodontium Treleasei 

 Card. var. latifolimn Card. J. Henriques. 



Luisier, A., Les fruits du Carnpylopiis polytrichoides de Not. 

 (Bull, de la Soc. port. d. Sc. nat. Vol. I. Fase. 3.) 



La frutification de cette espece etant assez rare et imparfaitement 

 decrite dans les publications bryologiques, Mr. Luisier, ayant eu la 

 bonne fortune de pouvoir etudier de bons echantillojis en fruits, 

 la decrit de cette maniere: 



Pedicelle jaunätre, flexuenx, reploye sur lui-meme ä l'etat hu- 

 mide, long de 6—8 millimfetres. Capsule ovale, brune ou jaunätre, 

 un peu irreguli^re, bombee sur le dos, profond^ment sillonnee, lege- 

 rement ridee en travers ä la base, non resserree ä l'orifice, couche 

 exterieure formee de cellules tres allongees et ä parois tr^s epaisses; 

 opuscule conique, jaune dore, ä long bec oblique; coiffe ä longs cils 

 hyalins. Peristome ä dents reunies en cOnes ä l'etat humide, rouges 

 ä la base, puis jaunes, divisees tres profondement en deux branches 

 filiformes hyalines, finement papilleuses. J'ai cru observer les restes 

 d'un anneau tombant par morceaux.jSpores jaunätres lisses de 14 — 16 «. 



Cette description est accompagnee de 4 gravures representant 

 la plante complete, la capsule avec la coiffe, la capsule avec Topus- 

 cule et une dent du peristome. J. Henriques. 



Tansley, A. G., Lectures on the Evolution of the Filicinean 

 Vascular System. (New Phytologist, Vol. VI, p. 25 sqq. textfigs. 

 1907.) 



These lectures which formed an advanced course given for the 

 University of London present a concise but practically complete 

 account of the structure and arrangement of the vascular System of 

 the Fc-rns. The subject is treated mainly from a phyllogenetic stand- 

 point and the lectures are of particular interest in that the very nu- 

 merous new facts acquired by recent investigations are here for the 

 first time brought together and their bearing on the general evolu- 

 tionarly relationship of the group carefully considered. Attention is 

 also given to the new theories of general morphological and anato- 

 mical interest that have arisen from the more complete knowledge 

 of this subject. 



In his introduction the author himself advances an hypothesis 

 of the origin of the shoot based on the acceptance of an homologous 

 alternation of generation in the Ferns. The shoot is held to have 

 arisen from a dichotomously branched thalloid axis as a result of 

 the assumption of an erect position. The stem itself and the main 

 axis are S5'^mpodia formed b}^ the dominant dichotomies of the thal- 

 lus while leaves are derived from the displaced subordinate branch- 

 systems. The leaf is therefore originally of the same morphological 

 nature as the axis upon which it arose. 



The author maintains that the shoot was primitively megaphyl- 



