74 BOTANICAL GAZETTE | JANUARY 
paper was published in this journal sometime ago.? Dr. Clements has inves- 
tigated the transition region from root to stem, the origin and development of 
radicels, and the apical growth of the stem. He describes three types in the 
transition region (Bot. Gaz., 7. c.) and finds no anatomical characters of 
value for taxonomic purposes. Van Tieghem’s conclusions that the radicels 
arise always and entirely from the pericycle and that there is but one type of 
radicellar formation in dicots are confirmed. As to apical growth, two or 
three initial cells are found in all the group, and Douliot’s opinion that apices 
with two initials are more primitive while three belong to higher forms is sup- 
ported. The volume is well gotten up and is a credit to the society.— C.R. B. 
ONE OF THE most thorough pieces of bryological work which has yet 
appeared in this country is the monograph on the Hepaticz of California 
which was issued in August last by Dr. Marshall A. Howe, of Columbia 
University.? Eighty-six species are fully described, anda number of them 
figured on well drawn plates. Full synonymy and remarks regarding nomen- 
clature, differential characters, distribution, etc., provide the necessary crit- 
ical apparatus for students of the group. 
Dr. Howe abandons, for the first time in taxonomic work, the coordina- 
tion of the Anthocerotales with the Marchantiales and Jungermanniales, and 
raises them to the rank of a class of the Bryophyta coordinate with the Hepa- 
ticee and Musci. While perhaps not entitled to speak on this point, we incline 
to a less radical step, such as dividing the Hepatice into two sub-classes, 
Eu-hepatice and Anthocerotes. 
The descriptions are long, seldom less than half a page, and do not 
indicate the diagnostic characters; a lack which is partly supplied by the 
keys to species, when more than one occurs in the region, and partly by 
supplementary remarks. The modern morphological terms occasionally 
replace the conventional ones, but there is, unfortunately no consistency in 
this usage, sporophyte and sporogonium and capsule, receptacle and gamet 
ophore, thallus and plant being used without apparent system. The plates 
are quite unlike the ordinary taxonomic ones, giving many morphological 
details, as do the descriptions. The monograph therefore will be welcom 
by both bryologists and morphologists.—C. R. B. 
THOSE who have used Professor Macbride’s monograph on the Myxomycetés 
of eastern Iowa will welcome the more extensive account furnished by thé 
present volume which gives descriptions of all species of Myxomycetes hitherto 
described from North America including Central America.? An introductory 
7 Bot. Gaz. 24: 182. 18 
8 Howe, M. A.: The Hepatic and Anthocerotes of California. Memoirs of the 
Torrey Botanical Club 7 : 1-208. pl. 88-122. 5 Aug. 1899 
° MACBRIDE, THos. H.: The North American slime molds. 8vo. pp- xvii i 
pl. 78. New York: The Macmillan Company. 1899. $2.25. 
