ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 6B9 



supplied to several of the species ; critical remarks and plentiful field- 

 notes are added ; and the physical and botanical features of the region 

 are described. 



Muscineee. 



(By A. Gepp.) 



Variation of Form in the Bryophyta.* — V. Schiffner gives his 

 views on this subject. Bryophytes may be ranged in three groups : — 

 (1) species which do not vary in form, but require fairly definite con- 

 ditions of life ; (2) species which possess some degree of adaptability to 

 change of environment, and exhibit corresponding variations of form ; 

 (3) species with a much greater power of adaptation, and exhibiting 

 great variety of form — the polymorphous species. These polymorphous 

 species are the plague of the systematists, leading to the creation of an 

 excess of new species which would certainly be reduced to mere sul> 

 species, varieties, or forms, if bryologists had a truer knowledge of how 

 the species varies within its own limits. A given species may be a 

 xerophyte, mesophyte, hygrophyte, or hydrophyte ; its forms may be 

 typical, depauperate, luxuriant, etiolated, alpine or polar, maritime, 

 coloured. It becomes necessary to ascertain what is the normal form of 

 the species, what are its extremes, and what are the links which connect 

 the extremes with the normal. 



Barbula Fiorii.f — F. Quelle records the occurrence of this moss 

 in the southern Harz mountains. It had previously been found only 

 on gypsum hills near Modena in the north of Italy. The plant is 

 peculiar, and is closely allied to B. revolvens Schimp., with which it 

 forms a distinct sub-genus, called Cylindrometopoji by the author, 

 characterised by its broad ovate leaves and a strongly re volute foliar 

 margin. Both of the species are typical xerophytes. The original 

 descriptions of the two plants are compared in parallel columns. The 

 B. Fiorii of the Harz is an inconspicuous earth-moss, dioicous, and 

 seldom fertile. The author gives a minutely detailed description of the 

 plant, describes its distribution on the gypsum strata and its absence 

 elsewhere, and gives a list of the mosses and lichens with which it 

 associates. 



Mosses of New Caledonia.^ — V- F. Brotherus publishes a list of 

 mosses of New Caledonia, which adds 55 to the total of 157 species or 

 varieties previously recorded for the islands. Some 60 p.c. are endemic. 

 Among the new records are twenty-eight species new to science, one of 

 them representing a new genus, Parisia neocaledonica, remarkable for its 

 longly piliferous nerveless leaves. It is placed in the list between 

 Campylopus and Synodontia. 



Mosses of Tonkin and Cayenne.§ — E. G. Paris gives a list of seven 

 mosses and two hepatics collected in Tonkin by L. Boutan. Three of 

 the species are new. In another list he gives twelve mosses and seven 

 hepatics collected in Cayenne by A. Michel. Four of the species are 

 new to science. 



* Hedwigia., xlv. (1906) pp. 298-304. f Tom. cit., pp. 289-97 (1 pi.). 



X Oefv. Finsk. Vet. Soc. Foerh., xlviii. (1905-6) No. 15, 27 pp., 1 pi. 

 § Rev. Bryolog., xxxiii. (1906) pp. 55-8. 



