es 2 
1906] CURRENT LITERATURE 395 
MINOR NOTICES. 
Pflanzenfamilien.s—Part 226 contains the completion of the Neckeraceae 
and the beginning of the Lembophylaceae by V. F. BRoTHERUS. secon 
part of the second supplement has also appeared, including the literature of 
1899-1904 in reference to dicotyledons up to the beginning of Euphorbiaceae. 
oy: M. C, 
NOTES EOR STUDENIs. 
Archegoniatenstudien.—The tenth of GoEBEL’s series by this title is for size 
almost a book in itself. It is made up of over twenty papers on morphology and 
biology of mosses and liverworts, varying from a page or less, embodying a brief 
note on the water adaptation in the form and position of the leaves in Ortho- 
thynchium, to a paper of forty-odd pages on Dawsonia and its allies, and a like 
one on marsupiferous Jungermanniales. In great part these papers were written 
several years ago, and some of the researches have been epitomized in GOEBEL’s 
Organographie, but they have not been published im extenso until now, on account 
of other work. 
Together they form a most important contribution to our knowledge of the 
bryophytes—a contribution too full of details to report fully. At various places 
It has a tinge of the polemic, for the author has to clear away many errors, and 
he takes occasion to rebuke one and another for shortcomings. Much space is 
devoted to speculations, which are confessedly unsupported by investigation 
cause material or time was lacking. Such speculations, if put briefly, may 
be Suggestive as a guide to future investigations; but they appear to be indulged 
mas a basis for future claims to priority, if we may judge from some citations of 
earlier ones in these pages. Even a scientific man is rarely without a prejudice 
In favor of his own hypotheses. Thus the author guessed (Organographie 346) 
about the development of the multicellular “spores” of Dicnemon: “Am wahr- 
scheinlichsten ist es dass sich aus den gekeimten Sporen ein Fadenprotonema 
bildet, etwa aus den Brutknospen von Tetraphis.” Now he declares ‘dass die 
frither gedusserte Vermutung richtig war.” But the “protonemal filaments” func- 
ton “der Hauptsache nach als Rhizoiden;” rhizoids arise also from the surface; 
and the apical cell of the stem arises not as a branch of one of these “ protonema 
“ments” but almost immediately from a marginal cell of the “spore.” It is 
difficult to see how the earlier guess can possibly be justified by these observa- 
tions. Certainly the resemblance to the behavior of the gemmae of Tetraphis is 
tather remote. Other like instances might be cited; sometimes the guess was 
Tight, sometimes not; and that is likely to be the case with these new ones. But 
the observations are abundant, and the author’s keen discrimination and clear 
Presentation throw light upon many obscure points. 
Dawsonia is held to be the primitive form of the Polytrichum line by reason 
Of the limited differentiation of tissues in the axis of the gametophyte, and espe- 
ENGLER, A., und Prantt, K., Die natiirlichen Pflanzenfamilien. Lieferung 
te 
226. Leipzig: Wilhelm Engelmann. 1906. 
