68 . SUMMAEY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



Change of Habitat by a Saxicolous Moss.* — G. Dismier announces 

 the finding of a fraiting specimen of Rhynchostegium, tenelhm growing 

 on a tree-tnink, though the species is otherwise known to occur on 

 calcareous rocks only. The specimen is quite distinct from the arbori- 

 colous R. litoreum. The author also found in the Vosges tufts of the 

 arboricolous Orthotrichum obtusifoUum growing on walls. 



l Monograph of Lophocolea.t — F. Stephani continues his monograph 

 of the genus Lop hoc o lea, supplying new descriptions of l^fi species, 41) 

 of which are new to science. 



Riccia Bischoffii.J — H. Witte has discovered this hepatic on a 

 chalky heath near Borgholm, Oland, Sweden. It is a mid-European 

 species, not previously known north of the Harz mountains. Its 

 northern limit is thus moved five degrees to the north. 



Epigonium of Mosses.§ — H. A. Rosander has studied the develop- 

 ment of the calyptra, vaginula, and sporogonium of the mosses. He 

 employs the word epigonium to represent the organ that covers the 

 young sporogonium — an organ of varying origin, but separating 

 eventually into calyptra and vaginula. He regards the development of 

 this epigonium as of great systematic value, and he gives a key under 

 which the various moss-families are ranged from this point of view. 

 The author's views, however, are by no means approved of by Arnell, 

 who supplies a precis of this paper in the " Central blatt." 



Sexual Polarity of Spores in Dioicous Mosses. ||— El. and Em. 

 Marchal publish some experimented researches on the sexuality of the 

 spores in dioicous mosses. By pure cultures of the spores of Barbula 

 unguicidata, Bryum an/enteum, and Ceratodon purpureus, the authors 

 have found that the spores in a capsule are heterogeneous ; some are 

 male and transmit this sexuality through the protonema to all its 

 ofiFshoot moss-plants ; the others are female and produce only female 

 plants. This sexual polarity is faithfully transmitted by the moss- 

 plants to all their vegetative offshoots. The environment is incapable 

 of modifying the sexual polarity of the protonema and its offshoots. 



Abnormal State of Atrichum.^ — Potier de la Varde gives a 

 description and figure of an anomalous state of Atrichum imdulatum 

 found growing on very arid talus near Guingamp (Cotes du Nord). 

 The plant is much dwarfed, and its pedicel is ensheathed to three- 

 quarters of its length by an involucral bract, which is tubular below, 

 split above, possessing neither nerve nor margin, but bearing on its 

 back some spines analogous to those on an ordinary leaf. Its function 

 can hardly be to protect the young sporogonium in its arid situation, 

 for quite normal plants grow alongside. The production of this structure 



* Rev. Bryolog.,'xxxiu. (1906) pp. 105-6. 

 t Bull. Herb. Boissier, vi. (1906) pp. 872-88, 935-66. 

 X Bot. Notiser, 1906, pp. 211-14. 



§ Disputation Upsala, 1906, pp. viii. and 100, 113 figs. See also Bot. 

 Centralbl., cii. (1906) p. 540. 



II M^m. Couronu. publ. par Class. Sci. Acad. Roy. Belg., ser. 2, i. (1906). 

 •j Bull. Acad. Internat. G6ogr. Bot., xv. (1906) pp. 287-8 (figs.). 



