'.)<■) SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



emphasized by Liudberg are all variable, and not even constantly 

 combined. The characteristics are the thick thallns, the scaly calyptra, 

 and the elaters with broader, laxly twisted spirals. 



Branching of Moss-plants * — K. Kavina has studied in detail the 

 branching of the Muscinese, and finds that the gametophyte and anaphyte 

 show a quite analogous branching of the axis. The mode of branching 

 is most clearly to be followed in the foliose mosses and liverworts. In 

 the latter it is mostly dichotomous, in the former it is without exception 

 monopodial. The author points out the difficulties of the investigation : 

 the small size of the objects, the congested leaves, cohesion of the sub- 

 tending leaves, torsion of the stem, plagiotropic flattening of the whole 

 plant, etc. Finally, he concludes that the liverworts are older than the 

 mosses (Uverworts being dichotomous, mosses monopodial) ; and the 

 genus Sphaf/num, which also brnnches dichotomously, represents an 

 isolated very old intermediate type. 



Mosses in Stomach of a Mammoth.f — F. Camus publishes a note 

 on three mosses — PoJytrichum aexangulare, Hypnum revolvens, H. stel- 

 latum — found in the stomach of a frozen Mammoth discovered in the 

 Liakhov Islands on the north coast of Siberia. Mixed in with a mass 

 of unrecognisable semi-digested grfeisses, etc., these mosses, though frag- 

 mentary, were identified by their cell-structure. They indicate a very 

 cold chmate. 



Ceylonese Mosses. J — H. N. Dixon gives an account of a collection 

 of mosses made in Ceylon by C. H. Binstead in February and March of 

 1918. Some 200 species are comprised ; and ten of these and two 

 varieties are described as new to science, and their structure is figured. 

 This, taken with T. Herzog's " Beitrage zur Laubmoosflora von Ceylon," § 

 provides the most complete report yet published upon the moss-flora of 

 Ceylon. 



Mosses of Upper Bavaria. || — A. Hammerschmid publishes an addi- 

 tion to the Moss-flora of Upper Bavaria, including in it a hst of species 

 from the neighbourhood of the Schliersee, Tegernsee, Tolz, Walchensee, 

 and Kochelsee. Phuridium nitidum is recorded on lake mud at a height 

 of 1300 m., Tortida papiUosa at 655 m. The description of Thuidmm 

 abietmum given by Limpricht is amended, the length of the leaves being 

 given as considerably larger. Drepanodadus Kneiffii, a.- species of the 

 plains, is recorded at 1080 m. Rare species of the district are Cinclidium 

 stygium, Cratoneuron decipiens (which is widely distributed in the district), 

 Galliergon turgescens, and Stereodon pratemis. 



* Vestnik v. sjez. ces. prir. (1915) p. 352. See also Bot. Centralbl., cxxix. (1915) 

 p. 388. 



t Comptes Eendus, clx. (1915) pp. 842-3. 



X Journ. Bot. liii. (1915) pp. 257-67, 289-97. 



§ Hedwigia, 1. (1910) pp. 115-45. 



l] Mitt. Bayer. Bot. Gesell., iii. (1915) pp. 216-221. See also Bot. Centralbl., 

 cxxi'x. (1915) p. 420. 



