SHORT NOTES 248 



of periodicals which have nothing at the head of the page is re- 

 markable, including ns it does the Kew Bulletin, the Memoirs 

 of the Torreij Club, Botanische Zeitung, Flora, Botaniska Notiser, 

 and Oesterreichische Bot. Zeitschrift. In the Annals of Botany, the 

 Bulletin of the Torreij Club, Malpi(/hia, tTournal of t/ie Linnean 

 Society, Giornale Botanico Italiano, and others, the names of 

 author or articles head eacli page, the name of tlie periodical 

 being omitted. In systematic works, the plan adopted in the 

 British Museum and Kew systematic publications of indicating at 

 the head of each page the genus as well as the order under 

 treatment adds greatly to the facility of consultation. In some 

 important works, however — e.y. Prof. Eugler's Pfianzenwelt Ost- 

 Afrikas — the pages have no heading of any sort. 



My object in calling attention to these apparently trivial matters 

 is to save future workers the unnecessary expenditure of time and 

 trouble which their neglect has occasioned, and is occasioning to 

 the present generation of botanists. The reforms advocated are 

 neither unreasonable nor difficult of execution, and it is confidently 

 hoped that, in some quarters at least, they will receive favourable 



consideration. _ _ 



James Britten. 



SHORT NOTES. 



OcTODiCERAs JuLiANUM IN Britain. — I am pleased to record from 

 two Worcestershire localities the very singular and interesting 

 Octodiceras Jnlianum Brid., a moss not hitherto recorded from any 

 British station. Tliis has been found by my enthusiastic and 

 painstaking friend Mr. J. B. Duncan, of Bewdley, in two different 

 localities, and in fair abundance near Stourport. Mr. Duncan 

 says: "The moss is evidently quite aquatic, and, judging from its 

 development, is well established ; the two localities where I gathered 

 it are over a mile apart ; the plant was growing on a piece of 

 natural timber along with Fontinalis and Eurhynchium ruscifonne, 

 and just covered with water." The plant naturally puzzled my 

 friend, as its first look is that of a Fissideus, and it might be 

 mistaken for a very small narrow-leaved variety of F. polypkyllm ; 

 but under the microscope the very short inferior lamina and truly 

 different areolation at once decide its distinctness, and my deter- 

 mination of the plant has been confirmed by Mr. H. N. Dixon. 

 There appears to be no reason why this plant should not be found 

 in many British streams, and it has probably been overlooked from 

 the fact that it has very much the look of a Fontinalis when growing. 

 It is found more or less frequently over the greater portion of 

 Europe, in Canada, and the United States. Schimper and Husnot 

 describe it as grov/ing on stones in water, but Mr. Dixon kindly 

 informs me that Limpricht says that on the Continent it is found 

 growing on tree-roots, &c., in water as well as on stones. Lesque- 

 reux and James, in their Manual of the Mosses of North America, 

 say, -'on stones and branches in wooded creeks and swamps." 

 The following description may be useful to some : — 



