ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 573 



Schiffner had demonstrated the presence of certain semicircular thicken- 

 ings on the inner tangential walls of the innermost cell-layer of the 

 sporogonial wall in R. major, and their entire absence in R. sinuata. 

 Boulay attributed the absence of these thickenings in the material of 

 R. sinuata examined by Schiffner to the damp nature of its habitat. 

 But Schiffner points out that R. sinuata is always a semi-submerged 

 plant, and maintains that the sporogonial structure of any species of 

 hepatic is, in his wide experience, never altered in any essential point by 

 a mere change of habitat. And having carefully repeated all the work, 

 he finds that his results were absolutely correct. After indicating further 

 distinctions between the two species, he gives the geographical distribu- 

 tion of R. major as represented in his own herbarium, a distribution now 

 extended from Scandinavia to France, Bulgaria, and California. 



Lophocolea.* — F. Stephani continues his systematic exposition of 

 descriptions of hepatics of the whole world, being now chiefly concerned 

 with the genus Lophocolea, and in particular with those species which 

 occur in the Southern Hemisphere. These amount to 60 ; and 10 of 

 them are described as new ; but all of the 60 are redescribed on a 

 uniform plan. 



Mounting Mosses. f — J. F. Collins gives some hints about mounting 

 mosses for the herbarium. He has abandoned the method of attaching 

 the envelopes or pockets containing the specimen to the sheet with pins, 

 and uses instead gummed wafers — half inch disks of paper gummed on 

 both sides. These are obtainable of all stationers in the United States, 

 and are cheaper even than pins. A single wafer is enough to hold most 

 envelopes firmly ; and the gum sticks at once. If necessary the 

 envelope can be easily detached at any time by one sweep of a paper- 

 knife, the wafer splitting readily. If the specimens are to be mounted 

 exposed on the sheet, the method of procedure is as follows : commercial 

 liquid glue, diluted with about an equal quantity of vinegar or water, is 

 brushed in a thin layer over a sheet of glass ; upon this the specimen is 

 rapidly pressed and transferred to its position on the herbarium sheet. 

 Finally, those specimens which, being small, have been mounted with a 

 lump of the soil they grew on, and which give trouble through the 

 crumbling away of the soil, are easily hardened by the application of a 

 few drops of diluted white shellac — 1 part of shellac to 3 parts of 

 95 per cent, alcohol. 



Monoecism of Funaria.J — L. A. Boodle, finding the inflorescence 

 of this species to be described as monoecious in bryological works, and as 

 dioecious in botanical text-books, has closely examined the case. His 

 results are that the plants are as a rule monoecious. The main axis is 

 terminated by a male flower. The female stem is a branch of the male, 

 is situated upon it anywhere from high up to low down, and usually has 

 a tuberous rooting base, which, when detached, gives it the appearance 

 of an independent plant. The female branch may be borne on a male 



* Bull. Herb. Boissier, vi. (1906) pp. 535-50, 649-64. 



t Bryologist, ix. (1906) pp. 60-2. 



X Ann. of Bot., xx. (1906) pp. 293-9 (figs.). 



