NOTICES OF BOOKS. 349 



that devoted to the structure and classification of Cryptogams. 

 In the section on Thallophytes, the bifurcation into Algae and 

 Fungi is abandoned in favour of four primary classes, — the Proto- 

 phyta, Zygospores, Oosporeae, and CarposporeaB, — dependent on 

 the mode of sexual reproduction, each class being again divided 

 into a chlorophyllaceous and a non-chlorophyllaceous series. 

 Whether this classification represents a closer approach to genetic 

 affinity than the one which has become incorporated into botanical 

 literature, and will stand the criticism of time, is too wide a 

 subject, to enter into in the present review. It might well be 

 that the rapid advance in our knowledge of not a few cryptogamic 

 groups since the publication of the German edition of 1874 ah-eady 

 requires its modification in some particulars. The text contains, 

 however, an account of the most important recent discoveries and 

 observations up to to that date ; and these are supplemented by 

 some editorial notes. The introductory paragraphs to each class 

 contain a very useful sketch of the comx:)arative anatomy of the 

 various organs. Under Vascular Cryptogams, again, the dual 

 division into Isosporeag and Heterosporeae is discarded, and three 

 primary classes set up, viz., Equisetineae ; Filicineae, including 

 Stipulatae, Filices, and Rhizocarpeffi ; and Dichotomeae, including 

 Lycopodiace^e and Ligulatae. The most important addition here 

 is the description of the previously unknown prothallium of 

 Lycopodium. A. W. B. 



Develupment of the Cortex in Chara. By T. F. Allen, M.D. 

 ' Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club,' April, 1882. — Obser- 

 vations on some American fur ins of Chara coronata. By the 

 same Author. ' American Naturalist,' May, 1882. 



In the first of these papers Dr AWqii gives some remarks on 

 the variation of the cortical cells of some species of the diplo- 

 stephanous group of Charas. The author accounts for the 

 presence of only one row of secondary cells, in the diplostichous 

 section, by the suppression of the cell on one side of each of the 

 cortical nodes. Whatever may be the case with C. e.vcelsa, of 

 which we have not seen specimens, with C. contraria, and C. inter- 

 media, the other species instanced, this is evidently not so, two 

 secondary cells being develoiDed at each node of the primary 

 series. 



The main, and by far the most important, part of this paper, 

 however, consists of the description and figures of three new 

 species, ■'■' viz., Cliara incotmexa, Allen (from Iowa, Prof. Bessey), 

 a plant closely allied to G. dissoluta, Braun, but differing in its 

 cortical cells being so partially develo^Ded as not to meet those of 

 the next node: C. evoluta, Allen (Canada, Prof. Macoun), resem- 

 bling C. canescens, but monoecious ; some of the specimens however 

 appear to have been dioecious, so it is doubtful whether this 



* Great inconvenience is caused by the description of new species in papers 

 which, from their titles, appear to relate only to morphology. Anyone finding 

 the quotation, " G. excelsa, Allen," would scarcely think of looking for its 

 original description under " Development of the Cortex in Chara." 



