1899] MATSCHIE’S CATALOGUE OF FRUIT-BATS 451 
order de novo, while the publisher undertook to supply such additional plates 
as were required to bring the work thoroughly up to date. At least 15 of 
such new plates are announced for issue, 11 of which have been drawn and 
lithographed by the late Mrs. Matschie. With such a wealth of illustration, 
the work starts with a strong promise of success. It is announced to be com- 
pleted in four parts. 
The present fasciculus deals with the important and interesting group of 
Megachiroptera or Fruit-Bats, all the members of which Dr. Matschie follows 
his predecessors in placing in the single family Pteropodidae. In this family 
the author recognises 20 genera and 122 species, together with numerous sub- 
genera and sub-species. And here it may be remembered that, although the 
distinction is clear enough in the systematic index, it would have been better if 
the number of sub-species had been more markedly distinguished in the text 
from those of species. Moreover, to our thinking, a few more plates of the 
animals themselves, in addition to the numerous figures of skulls, would have 
added decidedly to the general interest of the fasciculus, and have made it more 
attractive at least to the amateur naturalist. 
In regard to the limits of genera the author differs considerably from some 
English naturalists. He regards, for instance, the curious Pteralopexr atrata, of 
the Solomon Islands, as representing merely a sub-genus of Pteropus, instead 
of a genus by itself; while, on the other hand, Cynopterus marginatus from 
Sarawak, described by Mr. O. Thomas in 1893, is considered worthy of separa- 
tion as a distinct genus (Dalionycteris). Moreover, there are several important 
emendations on the Dobsonian nomenclature, Rouwsettus, Gray, replacing 
Xantharpyia, Gray, while Gelasinus, Temminck, stands for the preoccupied 
Harpyia, Uliger. If this latter change can be substantiated it will save the 
transference of the name Cephalotes from the genus it usually stands for to the 
above-named group (Harpyia), as has been proposed by Mr. T. S. Palmer; but 
it is very doubtful whether experts will admit the innovation. Although 
changing preoccupied names when they are literally identical with their 
precursors, Dr. Matschie refuses to admit that a name like Macroglossa 
necessitates the abolition of JMJacroglossus ; but here, again, we are on danger- 
ously debatable ground. 
So far as we have tested them, the generic and systematic definitions seem 
clearly and accurately drawn up; but how these work in actual practice can 
only be demonstrated when new genera or species have to be described. Special 
value attaches to the author’s notes on the distribution of the species of 
Epauletted Bats (Zpomophorus) in Africa, and the zoo-geographical sub-regions 
of that continent, but there seems too much tendency to make the species fit in 
with the regions. 
MULTIPLICATION OF MOSSES. 
Untersuchungen uber die Vermehrung der Laubmoose durch Brutorgane 
und Stecklinge. Von Dr. Carl Correns. 8vo. Pp. xxiv. + 472, 
with 187 figures. Jena: G. Fischer, 1899. Price 15 marks. 
By no means the least exciting group of plants are the Mosses. How 
interesting their position in the scale of plant-life, so far removed, excepting 
only their close allies the Liverworts, from everything else, and separated by as 
great a gulf from the less highly organised Algae as from the more highly 
organised Ferns! How remarkable their life-history, with its clearly marked 
division into two phases, distinct but never separated! How puzzling the 
comparison of organs and members with those of the higher plants! On the 
one hand the leaf that is not a leaf, on the other hand the unmistakable leaf- 
like character in structure and function of the base of the highly-organised 
spore-capsule. But perhaps the most striking feature of the group is their 
