THE PLANT WORLD 



73 



The curly-grass {Schizaca pusilla). After Berry in Asa Gray Bulletin, \ . 5. 



clover. Occasioually as many as five of these caps remain one below 

 the other, pushed off in succession from the growing point of the root. 

 The leaves have two rows of stomata and several rows of club-shaped 

 hairs, which are most abundant on the circinnate tips of the young 

 leaves. The spores are bean-shaped, pitted like a thimble, with a ridge 

 on the convex side, through which the first cell of the filament emerges. 

 The antheridia are formed early, one having been found when the fila- 

 ment consisted of only four cells, and was still attached to the spore. 



A search through the literature of ferns has shown no record quite 

 as simple as that of Schizaea, the nearest being that described by 

 Bower in the Annals of Botany in Tricliomanes pyxidifernni. But even 

 this is more complex, as the archegonia are borne on a specially mod- 

 ified base known as an "archegoniophore." 



A full description and illustrations will be found in the Bulletin oj 

 the, Ton-ey Botanical Gluh for January, 1901. — Elizabeth G. Brittou, New 

 York Botanical Garden. 



A Fossil Flower. 



It is a well-known fact that outside of the Baltic amber, flowers in 

 a fossil state are extremely rare. Their delicate texture is wholly un- 

 suited to the rough handling incident to fossilization, and conseciuently 

 few traces of them have been found. 



