ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 177 



difiFers but i very slightly from those to the fertile spike, fi. The nature 

 of the vascular supply of the a])ortive spike supports Chrysler's con- 

 tention that it represents two fused basal pinnae. 



Hymenophyllaceae.* — E. Rosenstock gives an account of the struc- 

 tural characteristics of some new species of Hymenophyllacea3 in the 

 Rijks Herbarium at Leyden, namely Hymenophylliim Pollenianum from 

 Madagascar, H. subdimidiatum from New Caledonia, Trichomanes re- 

 cedens from Borneo. 



New Guinea Ferns.f — Gr. Brause gives an account of the ferns 

 collected in north-east New Guinea by Schlechter, Schultze and others 

 in 1907-10, and in the Bismarck Archipelago by Schlechter in 11)02-8. 

 He treats only of the new species, 59 in number, and supplies careful 

 descriptions of their morphological and structural characters, which are 

 of systematic importance. Several of the more peculiar species are 

 figured. 



Bryophyta. 

 (By A. Gepp.) 



Spermatogenesis in Blasia.j: — W. L. Woodburn gives an account of 

 spermatogenesis as observed by him in Blasia, preceded by a resume 

 of what is known of spermatogenesis in Forella, Marchantia, Fegatella, 

 Fellia, Mnium, Atrichum, Polytrichum. In Blasia the mitotic stages 

 in the spermogenous tissue show no indications of centrosomes, the 

 divisions occurring in the usual manner. The spindle of the last division 

 is often obliquely placed. A pair of spermatids, however, results from 

 each cubical cell. An individual membrane surrounds each spermatid, 

 but there is no separating wall between the two. The blepharoplast 

 first appears as a dense mass of cytoplasm, one in each of the pair of 

 spermatids, and at opposite ends. A thread or cord — the blepharoplast 

 — develops around the cell, near to the plasma membrane. It stains 

 homogeneously throughout. The nucleus lengthens in close contact 

 with it ; and the two soon become indistinguishable. The length in- 

 creases ; and two cilia are developed at the forward end. No accessory 

 bodies — " Nebenkorper " of Ikeno, nor " limosphere " of Wilson — are 

 differentiated. 



Spermatogenesis in Polytrichum. § — N. Walker writes on al)normal 

 cell-fusion in the archegonium and on spermatogenesis in Polytrichum 

 — a re-investigation of some work published by J. and W. van Leeuwen- 

 Reijnvaan. 1. It would appear that the fusion appearances described by 

 the latter were due to their special method of preparation of the material 

 before fixation ; for Walker found no fusion between the egg-cell and the 

 large ventral canal cell. 2. In the spermatogenic cells the nucleus con- 

 tains a large nucleolus connected with a peripheral reticulum by delicate 



* Meded. v. Rijks Herb. Leiden, No. 11 (1912) 3 pp. 

 t Engler's Bot. Jahrb., xlix. (1912) pp. 1-59 (3 pis.). 

 t Ann. of Bot., xxvii. (1913) pp. 93-101 (1 pi). 

 § Ann. of Bot., xxvii. (1913) pp. 115-32 (2 pis.). 



