CURRENT LITERATURE. 355 



strains of the common castor bean {Ricinus communis). The paper is of 

 great interest because it calls attention to the fact that the plant is very 

 favorable material for genetical work. There is a large number of contrast- 

 ing and easily recognizable characters, such as color of stem, foliage, and 

 seed coats ; presence or absence of glaucescence ; dehiscent or indehis cent 

 capsules ; height of plant ; size and compactness of fruiting spike ; time of 

 maturity ; size and shape of seeds ; oil and "acid" content of seeds, etc. The 

 ordinary Indian field presents a hopeless mixture of these characters. Since 

 the plant is monoecious, and the staminate and carpellate flowers are segre- 

 gated in the inflorescence, it is quite easy to conduct controlled pollination 

 experiments. Ricinus should prove very useful for demonstrating to college 

 classes the outstanding facts of inheritance. 



Winfield Dudgeon. 



Hepaticae 



Campbell, D. H. Studies in some East Indian Hepaticae. (Calo- 

 bryum Blumei). Annals of Botany, Jan. 1920. 



The writer describes the structure and development of the curious liver- 

 wort Calobryum Blumei. The plant has a much branching prostrate stem like 

 a rhizome without rhizoids which gives rise to erect aerial leafy shoots sym- 

 podially. The leaves are arranged radially in three rows, though one of the 

 rows has often smaller leaves. The leaves are thicker at the base than higher 

 up. The stem grows by means of a tetrahedral apical cell, and it has a large 

 celled cortex and a central cylinder with narrow and elongated cells. 

 Mucilage hairs are present in almost all parts of the plant. Antheridia and 

 archegonia occur separately in clusters and are surrounded bj< large leaves. 

 Development of both is very variable. That of the antheridium is as a rule 

 astonishingly like the development of the archegonium. The stalk of the 

 antheridium consists of four rows of cells and the structure of the latter is 

 like that of other liverworts. The development of the sperms is as usual in 

 liverworts. The apical cell is used up in the formation of the archegonia. 

 The venter is formed of two layers of cells in the mature archegonium, and 

 the neck consists of four rows of cells. The conclusion is drawn that the 

 male and the female organs are homologous. The development of the 

 embryo, so far as seen, was like that in the other Jungermanniales. There is 

 a long seta, and an elongated capsule with a single layer of cells forming its 

 wall and a beak at the apex. Dehiscence by a long slit along one side. 

 Elaters with a double spiral. There is a massive calyptra. 



The conclusion is that the separation of Calobryum along with Haplomitr- 

 ium into a family, the Calobryaceae, is entirely justified. The distribution of 

 the genus shows that it was more generally distributed in former times. 



S. R. K. 



Mosses 



Brown, Mabel M. The development of the gametophyte and the 



distribution of sexual characters in Eunaria hygrometrica. Am. Jour. 



Bot. 6: 387-400. pi. 1. 1919. 



Conflicting statements have been made in the literature about the distri- 

 bution of sex organs in this moss. Many have claimed that it is strictly 



