ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 553 



plants which both exhibit the same marked and identical variation in 

 their character. 



Eabenhorst's Cryptogamic Flora of Germany (Vascular Crypto- 

 gams).* — This volume of this imj)ortant publication is now completed 

 by the publication of parts 11-14. These include the completion of the 

 EquisetacefB, in which twelve species of Equisettim and a large number 

 of varieties are very fully described, divided into the " jjhaueropora " 

 and the " cryptopora." The isosporous Lycopodinca) include the two 

 orders Lycopocliacere and Isoetacefe, each with a single genus, Lyco- 

 podium and Isoctes, the former ctmiprising six, the latter two species. 

 Finally the Selagiuellaccfe includo the single genus Selaginella with 

 three species. Throughout this most valuable work the descriptive 

 letterpress and the woodcuts leave nothing to be desired. 



Tubicaulis.t — Prof. G. Stenzel publishes a monograph of the species 

 of fossil herbaceous ferns, several of them new, which may be I'cferre I 

 to Corda's genus Tuhicaulls, but which are now distributed through 

 that genus, Asterochlsena, Zygopteris, and Anaclwropteris. The genus 

 Tuhicaulis in its restricted sense now includes only T. Solenites, dis- 

 tinguished by its cylindrical central vascular bundle. In AsterocJilsena 

 the bundle is lobed in a radiate manner, and the leaf-stalk-bundles are 

 ribbon-shaped in transverse sections. Zijgopteris has a tubular central 

 bundle filled with medullary parenchyme and witli five projecting ridges, 

 the leaf-bundles having a peculiar H-form in transverse section. A new 

 species, Z. scandens, is described, the slender stems of which creep into 

 the envelope of the root of Psaronius, where they carry on an epiphytic 

 existence. The greater part of the leaves are reduced to short scales, 

 Avhile above each leaf, springing apparently from the stem, is a short 

 cylindrical lateral shoot. Anaclioropteris is distinguished by the convex 

 form of the transverse section of the vascular bundles. 



Muscineae. 



Leptotrichic Acid.| — The glaucous appearance of Leptotriclmm glau- 

 cescens is caused by a white scurfy coating, which protects it from the 

 action of water like a coating of wax. Herr J. Amann finds this sub- 

 stance to be very soluble in ether, chloroform, or hot alcohol. From 

 the acid solution in ether leptotrichic acid crystallizes out on evapora- 

 tion in the form of prismatic needles. It is scarcely affected by con- 

 centrated sulphuric or hydrochloric acid, or by caustic alkalies in the 

 cold. The author finds this substance present in the green j^arts of 

 the moss to the extent of 13 per ceut. of its weight, and believes it to bo 

 the first crystal lizable substance as yet found in the Muscineae. 



Mosses from New Guinea. §— Herr A, Geheeb describes the mosses 

 collected in New Guinea, mostly on the Fly river, by Biiuerlein, in 

 Captain Evvill's exjiedition. Out of the twenty-seven species about 

 eighteen are new, but belong to familiar genera. 



* Luerssen, 0., ' Die Farnpflanzen (Pteridiophyta),' 8vo, Leipzi'', 1889, xii. and 

 906 pp. (228 figs.). 



t Uhlwnrra u. Haenlein's Biblioth. Bot., 1889, Heft 12, 50 pp. and 7 pis 



X Bot. Centralbl., xxxvii. (1889) pp. 71-2. 



§ Uhlworm u. Haenlein's Biblioth. Bot., 1889, Heft 13, 12 pp. and 8 pis. 



