194 ERYTHEA. 



examine larger suites of specimens and has, in consequence, 

 come to the conclusion that Diplocolon Heppii Nseg. and 

 Nostoc macrosporum Meuegh. are inseparable. But the 

 form is still deserving of generic rank and the genus 

 Diplocon is still to be distinguished from the genus Nostoc 

 by its branched trichomes, a character not found in the 

 tribe of the Nostocacece, but allying this form still with the 

 tribe of the Scytonemacece. Zukal (Notarisia, V; 1106-1114, 

 1890, with plate) in a paper entitled " Ueber die Diploconbil- 

 dung (ein Abart uer Nostocmetamorphose) " came to a 

 similar but less definite conclusion. WoUe's specimen, dis- 

 tributed under the title of " Diplocolon Heppii? " from 

 Niagara Falls, represents for the most part a stage inter- 

 mediate between the typical Diplocolon Heppii and the 

 typical Nosloc macrospornm. 



SHORT ARTICLES. 



Notes on Monterey Conifers : — Observations on Pinus 

 insignis, during the past four years, disclose the fact^ that a 

 large proportion of new shoots produce two whorls or partial 

 whorls of cones each year, many produce three, a lesser num- 

 ber four, and, rarely, specimens producing five whorls are 

 found. Many shoots show evidence of having borne three 

 series of whorls for three successive years, and occasionally 

 an abortive series gives proof of more^ or longer^^ series. The 

 cones of the abortive series of whorls usually shrivel up, 

 apparently unfertilized, at the beginning oE their second year. 

 Closed ripe cones are difficult to find by the time^that the 

 next crop ripens ; in fact, exposed cones begin to open with 

 the first warm spell, after they become ripe, and, unless very 

 well sheltered, the usual warm spells of the Indian Summer 

 open the last of the crop. Occasionally new cones are forced 

 out at the base of old branches, apparently through arrested 

 development ol terminal shoots. I found three yearling cones 

 thus placed on the first day of May. May it not b^ that this 



