6-i SUMMAEY OF CUKRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



CRYPTOGAMS. 



Pteridophyta. 

 (By A. Gepp, M.A. F.L.S.) 



Phylogeny of the Pteridophyta.* — E. Janclien publishes some new 

 theories as to the phylogeny of the Pteridophyta. In consequence of the 

 wide gap between the lycopods and ferns, he would divide the Cormophyta 

 into three groups : I. Bryophyta. II. Lycopodiophyta, namely Lyco- 

 podiinae and Psilotinje. III. Eucormophyta. The latter are divisible 

 into three sub-groups: (1) Eucormophyta asperma (including Filicinfe, 

 Cycadofilicinae, Isoetinae, Equisetinre) ; (2) Eucormophyta gymnosperma 

 (Gymnospermse) ; (3) Eucormophyta angiosperma (Angiosperma^). 

 Janchen discusses the views of other authors as to the phylogeny of the 

 ferns, and puts forward his own theories in such length and detail as 

 cannot be abstracted. 



Absorption of Water in Selaginella.t— W. Seyd treats of the quick 

 absorption of water by SeJagineUa through the mechanism of its leaves, 

 and gives an account of his experiments to show that the apparatus of 

 absorption is the ligules of the leaves. 



Calamostachys Binneyana.$— G. Hickling gives an account of the 

 anatomy of Calamostachys Binneyana. He seeks to prove that in Cala- 

 mostachys, as in Palctostachya, the sporangiophores form no proper 

 verticil, but that the sporangiophore bundles represent branches out of 

 the base of the bundles of the sterile leaves, which only in the internode 

 run parallel to the central system of the axis. In the nodes no alterna- 

 tion of the leaf-trace bundles takes place, and in the spike-axis there is 

 an occurrence of three or four strands. Also on each vascular bundle 

 in the sterile whorl arise two sporangiophore bundles corresponding to 

 the two sides, so that there are six sporangiophores or eight, according 

 as the strands of the leaf -node are three or four. Hickling regards 

 Calamostachys Binneyana as a low type of the CalamarieaB, and would 

 refer it to the Sphenophyllere. He recommends a method of taking 

 successive photographic pictures of a fossil object by reflected light from 

 time to time as the surface is being ground away. 



Dryopteris and its sub-genera. § — C. Christensen discusses the 

 genus Dryopteris (formerly known as Nephrodtum), the older genera 

 incorporated in it, the value of generic characters as employed in the 

 older and in the most recent systems of classification. He follows Diels 

 in including in Dryopteris the following : — Lastrea, Nephrodium, Phe- 

 gopteris, Goniopteris, Leptogramma, Meniscium. The author indicates 

 the characters which hold these heterogeneous elements together. It is 



* Mitt. Naturw. Ver. Univ. Wien, ix. (1911) pp. 33-51, 60-7. 



t Zur Biologie von Selaginella. Inaugural Dissertation (Jena, 1910). See also 

 Zeitschr. Bot., iii. (1911) pp. 518-20. 



X Mem. Proc. Manchester Litt. Phil. Soc, liv. (1910) 15 pp. (1 pi. and figs..) 

 See also Zeitschr. Bot., iii. (1911) p. 122. 



§ American Fern Journ., i. (1911) pp. 33-7. 



