276 SUMMARY OF CURRENT RESEARCHES RELATING TO 



receiving fibro-vascular bundles from the parent leaf; these leaves 

 form buds, which either become detached or adhere to the plant, often 

 growing very vigorously and forming secondary and tertiary shoots. 

 The young leaves may grow out at the base, from inability to find 

 space at their apices ; the sporanges there formed degenerate into 

 amyliferous tissue. Further, the lower part of the sporange may 

 become a leafy bulbil, while the upper part produces spores ; this case 

 is most common in the macrosporangia of vigorous and isolated plants. 

 In very rare cases, these bulbils themselves bear leaves containing 

 fertile sporanges. The sporange may be reduced to a small amyli- 

 ferous mass, lying between the epidermis and the fibro-vascular bundle 

 of the leaf, thus demonstrating what is its true morphological origin ; 

 this is not apparent from the normally developed sporange, which is 

 already further advanced when it is first observed. Lastly, some 

 leaves (e. g. var. sterilis) exhibit no trace of a sporange. 



Muscinese. 



Shoots from the Pedicels of the Inflorescence of Marchantia.* — 

 J. Klein has observed, on certain inflorescences of Marchantia poly- 

 morjpha which lie prostrate on the soil, but are still in connection 

 with the thallus, smaller or larger shoots springing from the pedicel, 

 and resembling the normal thallus. These shoots occur on both the 

 female and male inflorescences, but most frequently on the latter, since 

 the locality of these on the thallus is nearer to the soil. Each pedicel 

 usually produbes only one, and always at its upper end, near to the 

 peltate receptacle, this being the part that comes first into contact 

 with the damp soil. Each shoot produces on its lower side a more 

 or less dense felt of rhizoids, which may remain exposed in the air or 

 may penetrate the soil. The largest that was observed measured 14 

 by 8 mm. 



These shoots appear to be always formed in the so-called " radical 

 channels,"! and may, perhaps, be regarded as dormant bulbils ; since, 

 in addition to those which develop into shoots, there are always 

 a number of similar but very minute rudimentary bodies concealed by 

 the lateral lobes of the channels ; these are distinguished from the 

 rest of the pedicel by their bright green colour. They were found 

 also in the upper parts of the pedicels of erect female inflorescences 

 that had not come nearly into contact with the soil. 



Klein considers that these observations confirm the accepted 

 theory that the inflorescences of Marchantia are transformed axes of 

 the thallus. 



Geocalyceae. J — C. M. Gottsche publishes the result of some recent 

 observations on the structure of this interesting family of Junger- 

 mannieae. 



Firstly he identifies with Calypogeia ericelorum Eaddi,two Hepaticae 



* Bot. Centralbl., ii. (1881) p. 26. 

 t See this Journal, iii. (1880) p. 991. 



X Abhandl. Ges. Naturw. Hamburg, vii. (1880) pp. 39-66. See Bot. Zeit., 

 xxxviii. (1880^ p. 746. 



