462 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



other peristome. The plants of Bryum saxonkum showed even more 

 complicated conditions than those of D. varia ; and the details are fully 

 described and figured. In neither species were any spores present in the 

 lid. The author suggests that the phenomena described are clue to 

 regeneration arising as the result of mechanical injury to the lid-cells 

 when young. Two instances of cleistocarpy are described and figured 

 for Bryum saxonkum and Pogonatum nanum. 



Subterranean Moss-Flora of France.* — J. Maheu publishes the 

 result of his studies on the flora of caves, wells, and other subterranean 

 localities of France. The work has been an arduous one, and has taken 

 the author more than seven years, while even now he does not suggest 

 that his work is in any degree complete. His object is to study the 

 origin of the flora in question, the modifications which result from the 

 change of environment, morphological variations, and above all the 

 action of different factors on the reproductive organs. The Muscinese 

 form a large part of the flora of caverns and abysses, and they are treated 

 at some length in the paper, under the headings of : general facts, 

 affinities, geographical distribution, deformations observed on subter- 

 ranean species, hepaticas, and general results. In the section describing 

 deformations, the organs are dealt with separately, and figures illustrate 

 the points of interest. The mosses found in caves either do not possess 

 a sporogonium, or if this is present it does not produce spores. Certain 

 species become phosphorescent ; but none are ever found in total dark- 

 ness. In damp and cold caverns which are exposed to the north, the 

 species found are those of a boreal nature, Hylocomium triquetrum, 

 Hypnum Schreberi, H. cuspidatum, etc., i.e. species not found in warmer 

 caves. Details are given as to the conditions which govern the occur- 

 rence of certain species, and the whole subject is treated with great 

 thoroughness. 



European Sphagna.f — G. Roth has now completed his work on 

 European mosses by bringing out a volume on the Sphagna. He had 

 hoped to include also all the foreign species, but as time pressed, he 

 published the European species without further delay. A short account 

 of Sphagnaceae is followed by the systematic treatment, in which each 

 species is fully described with its varieties, forms, and distribution. 

 Actual keys are not given, but these are replaced by the headings of the 

 groups and by the drawings. 



British Muscineas. — W. H. Painter $ publishes a joint list of 

 146 mosses and 53 hepatics collected by himself and by Salter in 

 Cardiganshire during 1903-4 ; localities and altitudes are given. 



M. B. Slater § gives an account of the mosses and hepatics in the 

 second edition of J. G-. Baker's "North Yorkshire," which forms the 

 third volume of the Botanical series of the Transactions of the York- 

 shire Naturalists' Union. In his introduction Slater reviews the moss- 

 literature published in this country, especially as concerns the Yorkshire 



* Ann. Sci. Nat., ser. 9, iii. (1906) pp. 45-92. 



t Die Europaischen Torfrnoose. Leipzig : Engelmann, 1906, 80 pp., 11 pis. 



\ Journ. of Bot ., xliv. (1906) pp. 166-71. 



§ Hull : Brown and Sons, 1906, pp. 417-671. 



