Pflanzenkrankheiten. — Pteridoph3'-ten. — Floristik etc. 107 



either in the seed-bed or later, but chiefly because, notvvithstanding 

 their common occurrence, one of them has heretofore been reported 

 only once from the United States and neither has received the 

 attention it deserves from American mycologists. The past history 

 of both, too, appears to have been so confused owing, in a measure, 

 to their extraordinary similarity in external appearance and in 

 structure, that the writer thought it advisable to straighten out this 

 confusion as best as possible. M. J. Sirks (Haarlem). 



Land, W. J. G., A Protocorm of Ophioglossutn. (The Bot. Gaz. 

 LH. p. 478—479. 1 Textfig. 1911.) 



About 150 miles northeast of Mexico City, great quantities 

 of Ophioglossum Pringlei Underw. were found. Of many hundred 

 small plants, only one showed anything resembling a prothallus. 

 This supposed prothallus was sectioned and found to be a protocorm. 



The protocorm. buried in the soil to a depth of 5 cm., is almost 

 spherical and 9 mm. in diameter, with a slightly roughened surface 

 caused by the irregulär coUapse of dead cells of the outer cortex. 

 The leaf, including the petiole, is 13.5 cm. long and shows no trace 

 of a fertile spike. The remains of the leaf traces of five other leaves 

 are present, showing that the protocorm is at least seven years old. 

 The growing point is sunken in a pit made by cortical upgrowth. 

 Numerous rootlets are penetrating the cortex in all directions, but 

 only three or four in the upper region of the corm have reached 

 the soil, and have partly decayed. The outermost cells of the cortex 

 have lost their contents and collapsed, forming a protecting layer. 

 These empty outer cells, as well as those of the partly decayed 

 rootlets, are infested with fungal hyphae, which, however, do not 

 enter the iiving cortical cells. The cells of the cortex are very füll 

 of starch. 



It was further noticed that nearly all of the plants of a group 

 are connected, and that the smaller plants were produced by adven- 

 titious budding of the roots of the larger plants. Jongmans. 



Abrams, Leroy. The Deserts and Desert Flora of the 

 West. (Nature and Science on the Pacific Coast. p. 168 — 176. 1915.) 



The principal desert regions of North America are given. 

 Then follows an account of the character of the desert Vegetation 

 and its origin. The sagebrust plains of the Great Basin, the 

 Grand Canon of the Colorado and its flora, the Mohave De- 

 sert and its Vegetation, the flora of the desert mountains, the 

 Colorado Desert of southern California are dealt within this 

 section of the book. Harshberger. 



Ayers, P. W., New England's Federal Forest Reserve. 

 (Amer. Forestry. XXI. p. 803. July 1915.) 



This is an account of the forest land purchased under the 

 Weeks Act signed by President Taft in 1911 and which carries an 

 appropriation of ^11,000,000 of which only ^^8, 000, 000 became avai- 

 lable. The forest lands purchased under this act are at the head of 

 navigable streams. Maps and illustrations show the location, extent 

 and character of the forest lands, which form a part of the White 

 Mountain reserve. Harshberger. 



