536 SUMMARY OF CUERENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



books and papers as appear to be of interest and importance as con- 

 tributions to the morphology and phylogeny of the Bryophyta, and also 

 calling attention to a number of recent works dealing with the ecology 

 of these plants. It is founded on a bibliography of forty-six items ; and 

 the resume given of most of these papers with the notes and criticisms 

 of the writer is likely to prove of great service to students of bryology. 



Propag'ula in Frullania.* — A. Lorenz gives an account of vegetative 

 reproduction in the New England Frullani^e. Having no taxonomic value, 

 the propagula have not attracted nearly so much attention as have the 

 gemmte of hepatics. A gemma grows to a specific size while still attached 

 to the plant, and germinates after being shed. An adventive branch or 

 propagulum, whether arising from a " Brutblatt " or other position, 

 begins as an irregular mass of cells, and may develop a branch with 

 several leaves before becoming detached. Adventive branches are much 

 more abundant in Frullania eboracensis than in any of the other species ; 

 and in the case of this species they are considered in detail and figured. 

 It is on the dioicous species and sterile plants that they occur, and not 

 on fruiting plants. The method of development is described. 



Asexual Propagation in Mosses.f — H. A. Wager, in writing of a 

 new method of asexual propagation in mosses, describes and figures by 

 micro-photography the detachable apical buds or minute branchlets 

 which are shed in great number by Campylopus trichodes, the sterile 

 tufts of which are very abundant on the top of Table Mountain, Cape 

 Town. These propagula fall off, expand, put out rhizoids on damp soil, 

 and develop into mature plants. The species is exposed to droughts ; 

 and the wet weather periods are too short to allow of sexual reproduction 

 taking place. Similar propagula occur on a species in each of the genera 

 Polytrichum, Bartramia, and Bryum. 



Embryology of Corsinia. — K. Meyer, % in reporting upon his 

 researches on the sporophyte of the hepaticse, gives an account of the 

 development of the sporogonium of Corsinia marchantioides, one of the 

 lower Marchantiales. The monostromatic capsule-wall is separated off 

 very early from the archesporinm ; but the differentiation of the spore- 

 mother-cells from the sterile cells or rudimentary elaters takes place 

 relatively late. The sterile cells persist for a considerable time as a net- 

 work with spaces for the developing spores, then fall asunder, and, after 

 yielding much of their contents for the nutrition of the spore-mother- 

 cells, once more become charged with starch-grains. 



The same author § describes some abnormalities in the sexual organs 

 of Corsinia, and discusses these and other such cases recorded among the 

 bryophytes with reference to their bearing on the phylogeny of the 

 archegonium. 



* BuU. Torrey Bot. Club, xxxix. (1912) pp. 279-84 (figs.). 



t Annals Transvaal Museum, iii. (1911) pp. 40-1 (1 pi.). 



X Bull. Soc. Imp. Nat., Moscou, (1911) pp. 265-85 (figs.). 



§ Biol. Zeitschr., Moskau, it. (1912) pp. 177-85 (1 pi. and figs.). 



