322 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



to the mosses, the spores of Funaria hygrometrica and Bryum ccespiticium 

 germinate in the dark in attenuated solutions of salts, which exercise a 

 slight osmotic force. The spores of Polytrichmn commune are incapable 

 of germination in the dark in any of the solutions experimented with — 

 namely, very weak solutions of inorganic salts or solutions of organic 

 iron salts. Numerous tables of experiments are given, which show the 

 reaction of the various spores to the various strengths of the salt- 

 solutions employed in light and in darkness. 



Tern Hybrids in Russia.* — E. Isspolatow offers some remarks on 

 the still unsettled question of fern-hybrids, and considers that certain 

 ferns gathered by him in various parts of Russia are hybrids, namely, 

 Botrychiam rutaceum Willd., a hybrid of B. Lunaria and B. rutcefolium ; 

 and apparently Cystopteris sudetica A. Br. and M., is a hybrid of C. 

 montana and C. fray His or PoJypodmm Dryopteris. According to some 

 observers, PhpyopUrii^ Rohprtiana A. Br. is to be regarded as a hy1)rid of 

 Polypodium Phegopteris and P. Dryopteris. 



Costa Rica Ferns and a New Climbing Fern from Madagascar.f — 

 H. Christ continues his studies of the ferns of Costa Rica, and gives 

 a list of 59 species collected by Pittier, Tonduz, Werckle, Biolley, and 

 others. From Mt. Tablazo comes a group of species of Lastrea, re- 

 lated to those first found by Sodiro in Ecuador. The author has 

 been supplied with some comparative field-notes by Werckle, who made 

 an expedition into Colombia, and was surprised to find the flora of 

 Colombia (except between the rivers Atrato and Cauca) to be re- 

 latively a poor one. The fact is, that the flora of Costa Rica is the 

 most luxuriant in the American tropics. The author describes nineteen 

 new species and some varieties. At the end of his paper he tacks on 

 a new Columbian fern, and also a description of a new genus from 

 Madagascar, Lathy ropier is, a climbing fern of an absolutely new type, 

 connected by some of its characters with Pteris and Pellcea. 



American Ferns.:}: — L. M. Underwood has monographed the 

 American species of Stenochlcena, twelve in number, all of which 

 would be referable to the comprehensive Acrosticimm sorbifoUum of 

 Hooker and Baker's " Synopsis Filicum." Preferring, for strongly 

 stated reasons, to regard them as separate species. Underwood supplies 

 a synoptical key to aid in their separation, and describes three of them 

 as new. References, distribution, and notes are added. Remarks are 

 made upon five other species which require further investigation. 

 The author also demonstrates that Pa'cilopteris crenata Presl is not a 

 form of Leptochiius serratifoJius, but is closely allied to L. contaminoides 

 from Paraguay, and indeed absorbs the Brazilian specimens referred to 

 that species by Christensen. M. A. Strong § records the finding of 

 another colony of plants of Bryopteris Filix-mas in Vermont, at a 

 place six miles from where it was discovered in 1905. She describes 



* Bull. Jard. Imp. Bot. St. Petersbourg, vi. (1906) pp. 208-9. 

 + Bull. Herb. Boiss., vii (1907) pp. 257-76 (fig.). 

 X Bull. Torrev Bot. Club, xxxiii. (1906) pp. 591-605 (figs.), 

 § Rhodora, ix. (1907) pp. 27-8. 



