1896, Briefer Articles. 237 
upon the coast or inland, we should expect to find one or more related 
species, bearing conspicuous, softer and more palatable seeds (as in 
the case of the so-called “Florida bean”), the ancestors of which had 
been carried from the beach when the process of selection in the two 
directions began.—W. H. SHERzER, State Normal School, Ypsilanti, 
Mich. 
lichens, the only “thallophytes.”—It is with great pleasure that I 
§0 through the new text-books of botany; their wealth of material 
and new views of classification are of extreme interest. The large 
amount of space devoted to cryptogams, more especially to the lower 
ayptogams, is in great contrast to the limited space accorded them 
it eatlier works. The general method, too, is quite different; there 
everywhere a severe strain after the homologies, while the analogies 
and affinities of the old botanists are scarcely considered. 
We are furnished with new terms in vast profusion, contributing 
Really to conciseness of thought and facility of expression. It would 
1 Superfluous to ask for anything more in this respect; neverthe- 
it seems to me it would conduce greatly to ease and brevity of 
opal description, to have a technical term for the vegeta- 
rk system, and another for the reproductive system of plants in 
nural. It is true that vegesation and Sructification are made use Of, 
ht they are hot technical terms, because they are employed with 
other meanin gs. 
Hitting terms are used in some of the classes of plants. The vege- 
nding ent ePFOductive systems of a fungus are clearly and broadly 
indicated by mycelium and sporophore, those of a myxomycete by plas- 
in ‘ita and sporangium, of a lichen by thallus and apothectum. But 
uPtive works upon the alg, there is great confusion and un- 
a aty in the terms; we find cell, thread, filament, frond, stem, etc., 
tam use for the vegetative system and a greater nea 
Special . _ reproductive system. These are all well seiner 
for each ~ eetons, but there is need of a pair of contras - oom 
to —. function in general. Wallroth, who was sis ale 
lum, te . terms, employed the term physeuma to CO 
's, folium” of Agardh 
* me to speak of the term thallus. The usage of the writ- 
fy sa 
Even : 
noma . ” in 
Paige Pers., we find the tubules “sitting on a my orspnig: thor 
Susca Pers., where the ascomata rest on a “sudiculum. 
