86 



SPORES AND 8PORIDIA, 



would be of too mixed a character long to remain ■without some 

 better designation. Under tliis term would be included the basidio- 

 spores of the Hymenomycetes and Gastei'omycetes,the stylospores of the 

 Sphceronemei, the pseudosi^ores of the Uredines — which latter are a 

 kind of prothallus fi'om which true spores are produced — the acro- 

 spores of the Mucedines, &c., so that the retention of the term spore 

 for all these would after all be more objectionable than the adop- 

 tion of sporidia for spores enclosed in asci. 



Thei-e is, however, one term — Avhether subsidiary to spore, or 

 independent of it— we would submit for the consideration of Myco- 

 logists as worthy of adoption. Recent researches have demon- 

 strated that the Uredines and their allies are not in themselves true 

 spores, but a kind of protospores, or pseudosjjores, which germinate 

 and pi'oduce true spores. It has been proposed that to these bodies 

 the term " pseudospores " should be applied. 



Subsidiary names are constantly being given to spores having a 

 peculiar mode of generation or of development, and so long as these 

 terms are understood and restricted to their original characteristics 

 they are useful, but none of these have so much to commend 

 them, or represent a number so vast as those comprehended by 

 the term " sporidia," for which we claim the adherence of 

 Mycologists and Lichenologists. 



HEPATIC^ EUROPiE.* 



If there is one feature more than another which commends itself 

 to us on opening Du Mortier's volume, it is the full, and apparently 

 complete, synonymy of the genera and species, -and the large number 

 of references or citations. Anyone who has learnt by experience 

 the labom- of collating synonyms will appreciate the large amount 

 of work which such a volume represents. The description, how- 

 ever, is exceedingly brief; practice alone will prove whether, by 

 the help of the analytical key, the student will find them sufficient 

 for the determination of species. 



Appearing simultaneously with the eai-ly part of Carrington's 

 British Hepatica?, there will naturally be a tendency to compare, at 

 least, the systematic arrangement. It would be unfair to institute 

 comparisons in features to which Du Mortier's volume makes no 

 pretensions. Dr. Carrington professes to adhere as closely as 

 possible to the arrangement adopted by Nees and his collaborateurs, 

 and in this we think he acted wisely. Du Mortier, of course, ad- 

 heres to Du Mortier; that is, the volume of 1874 draws its in- 

 spiration from the works of 1822, 1831, and 1835, of the same 



* Hepatirse Europse, by B. C. Du Mortier, pp. 200, 8vo. Brussels. 1874. 



